Analysts discuss: why change the prime minister?
By M. Alkhazashvili
(Translated by Diana Dundua)
Tuesday, November 20
As Zurab Noghaideli prepares to stand down as prime minister, analysts offer vastly different assessments of his political career so far.
Anzor Sakandelidze, chair of the Small Entrepreneurs Association describes Noghaideli as “the internal killer of the country’s economy,” during his tenure as Finance Minister between 2000 and 2001.
However, Giorgi Udzilauri, a writer for the newspaper Akhali Taoba, argues that Noghaideli’s tenure as prime minister was an overall success.
“Besides implementing painful reforms, he managed to increase the state budget, and solved the pensions and the salaries problems,” Udzilauri commented.
Udzilauri also suggests that Noghaideli resigned because he refused to pass the “populist” economic policy that President Mikheil Saakashvili is trying to implement in the run-up to elections.
“Suddenly the president stated that he was going to double the pensions and the salaries, to cancel cash registers on the markets and so on. With such populist policies he threatens to destroy the system that [Noghaideli] had been creating for years. Noghaideli refused to take steps that were not in the country’s economic interests,” Udzilauri says.
Anzor Sakandelidze, chair of the Small Entrepreneurs Association describes Noghaideli as “the internal killer of the country’s economy,” during his tenure as Finance Minister between 2000 and 2001.
However, Giorgi Udzilauri, a writer for the newspaper Akhali Taoba, argues that Noghaideli’s tenure as prime minister was an overall success.
“Besides implementing painful reforms, he managed to increase the state budget, and solved the pensions and the salaries problems,” Udzilauri commented.
Udzilauri also suggests that Noghaideli resigned because he refused to pass the “populist” economic policy that President Mikheil Saakashvili is trying to implement in the run-up to elections.
“Suddenly the president stated that he was going to double the pensions and the salaries, to cancel cash registers on the markets and so on. With such populist policies he threatens to destroy the system that [Noghaideli] had been creating for years. Noghaideli refused to take steps that were not in the country’s economic interests,” Udzilauri says.