Georgian Dream nominates acting finance minister Bakhtadze to be next PM

Georgian Dream nominates acting finance minister Bakhtadze to be next PM
On being nominated for the post of PM, Bakhtadze said: "We will accomplish the historic choice of the Georgian people to be integrated into the Euro-Atlantic space." / Ministry of Finance of Georgia.
By bne IntelliNews June 14, 2018

Georgia’s Acting Finance Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze was on June 14 named as ruling party Georgian Dream’s candidate to become the country’s next prime minister, the parliamentary speaker announced.

After receiving the nomination, Bakhtadze, 36, declared at a press briefing: "We will accomplish the historic choice of the Georgian people to be integrated into the Euro-Atlantic space." 

Bakhtadze went on to pledge "fundamental and innovative reforms in every necessary direction” to create a new economic model “with fair play rules, which will apply to every family and every citizen", according to Georgia Today. Georgia’s reforms are sputtering, according to some analysts.

Russia, which in 2008 fought a brief war between the two countries over the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, will be wary of any strengthened pro-Nato and pro-European Union orientation from Tbilisi, but Russian-Georgian bilateral relations have been relatively steady in the past two years, and May brought reports of the two countries working on an agreement for three trade corridors.

If the Georgian parliament agrees to make him PM, Bakhtadze will succeed Giorgi Kvirikashvili who resigned on June 13 citing disagreements over economic policy and “fundamental issues” with the leader of Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, an ex-prime minister of Georgia and tycoon who is the richest man in the ex-Soviet republic.

Kvirikashvili’s last days in office were overshadowed by big protests in Tbilisi over the trial of those suspected of killing two teenage boys in a brawl outside their school. The demonstrations gradually took the character of anti-government protests that called for the resignation of Kvirikashvili’s administration. How much of a factor the protests were in Kvirikashvili’s resignation is unclear. His impending departure has been a staple of Georgia’s political gossip since early 2017.

Bakhtadze has been finance minister since November 2017 and before that was the head of Georgian Railways from March 2013. He needs to submit a cabinet list to President Giorgi Margvelashvili within seven days. The president then has seven days to submit the new cabinet to parliament for approval.

Ivanishvili, 62, resigned from the posts of PM and Georgian Dream party chairman in 2013, but observers claim he has continued to run the country from the shadows. He made a political comeback in public in May, returning to his former post as party chairman. His coalition won control of the government in October 2012 after defeating the party of ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, leader of the 2003 Rose Revolution.

The coalition later split, but after triumphing in a parliamentary election in 2016, Georgian Dream consolidated its grip on power.

Bakhtadze studied microeconomics and management at Tbilisi University and has postgraduate qualifications from Moscow State University and INSEAD. From 2010-2012 he was executive director of the Georgian International Energy Corporation.

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