Background
Nika Gilauri was born in 1975 in Tbilisi.
politician Prime Minister of Georgia
Nika Gilauri was born in 1975 in Tbilisi.
He graduated from the University of Limerick (Ireland), with degree in Bachelor of Business Studies in Economics and Finance and later gained an Master of Business Administration in International Business Management from Temple University, Philadelphia.
He had served as Minister for Energy (2004–2007) and Minister for Finance (2007–2009) and First Vice Prime Minister in the Cabinet of Georgia (2008–2009). In 2012, he was appointed as the head of the Joint-stock company Partnership Fund, a state-owned stock fund. Currently Mr Gilauri set his advisory boutique for public sector decision makers.
He is also a senior advisor at McKinsey and Company
Before joining the government of Georgia Mr Gilauri worked as a financial controller at ESBI Georgia, which was a management contractor for Georgian State Electosystems and Iberdrola Georgia, which was management contractor for Electricity Systems Commercial Operator of Georgia.
Mr Gilauri joined the government of Georgia in 2004 as a Minister of Energy and spearheaded reforms in the energy sector, turning the country from blacked out state into the Netto electricity exporter, eradicating corruption, introducing new legislation, new market rules and new tariff methodologies. He also led energy sector negotiations with Gazprom, SOCAR, Inter RAO and other large energy companies resulting in Georgia becoming one of the most energy secured countries in the region.
As a Minister of Finance (2007 – 2009) Mr Gilauri undertook anticorruption reforms in customs services introducing innovative measures to improve services and eradicating any non-transparent actions. Also he led the new Tax Code reform simplifying the rules, minimizing any double interpretation possibilities, and creating a fair ground for entrepreneurs and investors, resulting in introducing of the new Tax Code in 2009.
One of the most important moves as a Minister of Finance for Nika was reducing tax rate (income tax from 20% to 15%) in the beginning of 2009, in the midst of the world financial crises when everybody adopted austerity measures and advised to do the same to the government of Georgia.
The move worked well for the country being the first to recover form recession reaching 6,4% growth rate in 2010. In February 2009 Mr Gilauri succeeded Grigol Mgaloblishvili as a Prime Minister. Due to difficult economic situation (growth rate was -9%) he was primary charged with economic recovery program and improvement of business climate in the country.
In Q2 2012 (when Mr Gilauri retired from the Prime Minister position) Georgia’s economic growth rate was above +8% and Georgia was Ranked 9th worldwide by the World Bank’s Easy to Do Business Report (up from 112th in 2006).
As Prime Minister Mr Gilauri also led healthcare reforms resulting in constructing (by private sector) more than 100 new hospitals around the country within two years time. Education reforms creating healthy and sustainable competition in secondary as well as tertiary education systems
He also led European Union-Georgia FTA agreement negotiations as well as European Union – Georgia Association Agreement negotiations.