Georgia’s President Appoints New Chief of National Bank
TBILISI - A former International Monetary Fund (IMF) economist Koba Gvenetadze, who joined the board of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) earlier this month, has been appointed as a new President of NBG.
The seven-member board of NBG chose Gvenetadze as the head of the major Bank in Georgia and today, President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili has approved his candidacy.
Gvenetadze replaces Giorgi Kadagidze on the post, whose seven-year term expired in late February.
Margvelashvili emphasized that the new President of the NBG will preserve the position that is necessary for the country’s economic development.
“Having cooperated with the coalition he has also gained votes in parliament and was presented as the Candidate President,” Margvelashvili said.
Gvenetadze, a former International Monetary Fund economist, was approved as the new member of NBG board by the Parliament on March 2 after being nominated by President Margvelashvili.
On Tuesday, Gvenetadze met with Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili to present four-point plan, which includes development of the capital market, pension reform and strategic partnership with international finance institutions.
Gvenetadze believes that the best way how to keep inflation stable and low is communication process between society and economic agents. From his point of view this process should be definitely implemented.
Before joining IMF, Gvenetadze served on various posts in the Georgian government; he was Deputy Finance Minister in early years of 2000s.
From early 2008 till late 2009 he served as IMF resident representative in Azerbaijan and he was IMF resident representative in Kyrgyzstan in 2010-2014.
During the parliamentary committee hearings, Gvenetadze indicated that he was more in favor of keeping the financial supervisory agency within the NBG rather than removing it, as in July 2015, the Georgian parliament passed the bill to remove the banking supervisory function from the country’s main Bank and transferred them to a separate agency.
By Tamar Svanidze
Edited by Chloe Diamond