Who is Georgia’s ruling party’s PM candidate?

Giorgi Kvirikashvili, who served as the country’s Foreign Minister, might step up as Georgia’s  new Prime Minister since the majority named him as its candidate for the Prime Minister's post today. 

For the majority of Kvirikashvili’s career he has been involved in the financial and economics sector in state and private businesses.

He was involved in politics in the late 1990s then again three years ago when he revealed himself as member of the Georgian Dream coalition (GD), established by former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. The GD coalition defeated United National Movement (UNM) in the Parliamentary Elections in October 2012.

Before entering politics and shortly before the 2012 elections Kvirikashvili was general director of the Tbilisi-based Cartu Bank, established by Ivanishvili. He held this position from 2006 to 2011.

Since 2012 until September this year Kvirikashvili served as the Minister of Economy of Georgia. On September 1, 2015 he was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Kvirikashvili gained his education in the United States and has more than 12 years’ experience in the financial sector. This includes commercial bank leadership where he was CEO of one of Georgia’s top five group member banks. He is also an experienced economic policy adviser.

During his career Kvirikashvili was involved in the United States Agency of International Development (USAID) pension reform in Armenia and in the World Bank Project - Secured Corporate Obligations Market. 

During the government of Eduard Shevardnadze and the beginning of Saakashvili’s regime, from 1999 to 2004, Kvirikashvili was a Member of the Parliament of Georgia and Deputy Chairman of the Economic Policy Committee. 

In 1999 he was deputy head of the Fiscal, Monetary-Credit and Foreign Economic Service at the State Chancellery and head of a joint program between the Georgian government and USAID regarding development of small and medium-sized businesses.