Zurab Noghaideli

Infobox Prime Minister
name = Zurab Noghaideli

---

imagesize = 200px
caption = Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev
order = 16^th
office = Prime Minister of Georgia
term_start = 17 February 2005
term_end = 16 November 2007
president = Mikheil Saakashvili
predecessor = Zurab Zhvania
successor = Lado Gurgenidze
order2 = Minister of Finance
term_start2 = 2000
term_end2 = 2002
president2 = Eduard Shevardnadze
primeminister2 = Zurab Zhvania
order3 = Member of Parliament
term_start3 = 1992
term_end3 = 2000
president = Eduard Shevardnadze
birth_place = Kobuleti, Adjaria, Georgia
nationality = Georgian
party = None
alma_mater = Moscow State University
occupation = Politician
profession = Physicist
religion = Church of Georgia

Zurab Noghaideli ( _ka. ზურაბ ნოღაიდელი) (born 22 October 1964) is a Georgian businessman and a retired politician who served as the Prime Minister of Georgia from February 2005 until he resigned, citing health problems, on 16 November 2007.

Early life and career

Born in Kobuleti, Ajaria, Georgia, Noghaideli graduated from the Moscow State University with a diploma in Physics in 1988. Before entering into national politics, he worked for the "Institute of Geography" of the Georgian Academy of Sciences between 1988-1992. In 1989-1990, he was also trained at the Institute of Geology of the Academy of Sciences of Estonia.

Parliament

He started his political career together with his friend, Zurab Zhvania, in the Green Party of Georgia in early 1990s. Noghaideli became a deputy in the Parliament of Georgia in 1992, elected following the overthrow of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, and chaired the Parliamentary Committee on Environment Protection and Natural Resources during 1992-1995. He was again member of the successor Parliaments in 1995-1999 and 1999-2000, when he chaired the Parliamentary Tax and Income Committee.

Minister of Finance

He joined the government of Eduard Shevardnadze in the capacity of Minister of Finance in May 2000. During these years, he was considered a member of a political team of young reformists headed by Zurab Zhvania and Mikheil Saakashvili and proved to be quite an effective minister.

In 2001, he left the President-run Union of Citizens of Georgia party which he had joined in 1995. He was sacked, in 2002, without explanation, though it appears that he had intended to resign in protest against the policies of Shevardnadze’s increasingly corrupted government (as the Minister of Justice Mikheil Saakashvili did a year before).

In a brief period of 2002-2003, he was involved in banking and investment ventures.

After Shevardnadze was ousted in the Rose Revolution of November 21-November 23, 2003, Noghaideli returned to government as the economic adviser to the acting president, Nino Burjanadze. He was re-appointed to his old post as Minister of Finance in February 2004 in the government of Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania.

Prime Minister

President Mikhail Saakashvili nominated Noghaideli for the post of Prime Minister on February 11 2005 following the untimely death of Zhvania. He was confirmed by the Georgian Parliament on February 17, 2005 by a vote of 175 to 24, and was sworn in immediately. Noghaideli is not a member of any party and is regarded as a technocrat with a tough approach to the corruption that plagues Georgia's economy.

According to "Financial" weekly Georgian newspaper The World Bank Group and the U.S. Agency for International Development has honored Zurab Nogaideli, Prime Minister of Georgia, as top business environment reformer of the year 2007. The Prime Minister has led reforms which have catapulted Georgia from a ranking of 112 to 37th place in the World Bank Group’s 2007 global rankings on the regulatory ease of doing business. Noghaideli is married and has one child.

Resignation

Noghaideli announced his resignation on 16 november 2007 due to his poor health condition. In April 2007, Noghaideli underwent elective open-heart surgery at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, U.S. [ [http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/2007/07-04-20.rferl.html RFE/RL Newsline, 07-04-20] . Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Accessed on November 16, 2007.] The operation, led by leading US surgeon Dr. Charles Frazier, lasted for 8 hours and involved transplanting one mitral valve of the PM's heart.

After his resignation, Noghaideli retired from politics and joined the Kala Capital company - owned by the soccer star Kakha Kaladze - as its chairman. Since June 2008, he has also been a chairman of the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University Business Council. [ [http://www.kalacapital.com/zn.php Zuran Nogaideli] . The Kala Capital. Retrieved on 2008-07-23.]

References

* [http://nsc.gov.ge/index1.php: Official biography for Zurab Nogaideli at National Security Council of Georgia website]
* [http://www.government.gov.ge: Government of Georgia website (Georgian)]
* [http://www.medianews.ge/Justice/238.html: Zurab Noghaideli undergoes a heart operation]