Giorgi Vashadze

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Giorgi Vashadze
გიორგი ვაშაძე
Vashadze in 2015
Member of the Parliament of Georgia
Incumbent
Assumed office December 11, 2020
Parliamentary group	Strategy Aghmashenebeli
Leader of Strategy Aghmashenebeli
Incumbent
Assumed office 2020- present
Preceded by	party established
Deputy Minister of Justice of Georgia
In office 2010 - 2012
Member of the Parliament of Georgia
In office 21 October 2012 – 18 November 2016
Parliamentary group	United National Movement - More Benefit to People
Personal details
Born	(1981-07-08) 8 July 1981 (age 43)
Political party	Strategy Aghmashenebeli (2016-present)
Other political affiliations	United National Movement (until June 2016)
Education	Tbilisi State University Georgian Technical University
Website	www.idf.solutions

Giorgi Vashadze (Georgian: გიორგი ვაშაძე; born 8 July 1981) is a Georgian politician and international policy expert who served as a member of the Parliament of Georgia from 2012 to 2016 and from 2020 up to the present. He is a founder and international key expert of Innovation and Development Foundation (IDF) Archived 2021-03-02 at the Wayback Machine, international think-tank that is committed to design public policy solutions and reform packages. In May 2016, Giorgi Vashadze founded a political party ‘Political Platform - New Georgia’.^[1]

Since 2020, he has been chairperson of the political party Strategy Aghmashenebeli. In 2023, with The United National Movement, he formed the largest opposition unity in Georgia. As the campaign chairperson of the coalition, he is responsible for the election campaign and political activities of the coalition.

He is also a founder of Computer Literacy Foundation that was established in 2012^[2] and Georgia Reforms and Partnership Enterprise (GRAPE). Giorgi Vashadze previously served as a deputy minister at the Ministry of Justice between 2010 and 2012, and a Chairman of Civil Registry Agency from 2006 to 2010.^[3]

Giorgi Vashadze was born in Chiatura, Georgia. After graduating with a dual degree from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and Georgian Technical University, he was appointed as a Head of Passport and Population Registration Service to Chugureti Register Agency of Ministry of Justice of Georgia in 2005. Shortly, he moved up the career ladder and was assigned to the post of at first, Deputy-Chairman (from 2005 to 2006), and then, the Chairman of the Civil Registry Agency of the Ministry of Justice from 2006 to 2010. In 2009-2010, he attended the Executive Education program at Harvard Business School. Between 2010 and 2012 he served as a Deputy-Minister of Justice of Georgia.

During his term in office at the Civil Registry Agency, Giorgi Vashadze initiated and implemented many landmark projects at the intersection of public administration and e-governance. The main reform was the introduction of ID cards that substituted for previous forms of citizen identification and formed a strong basis for realizing other breakthrough reforms concerning biometric passports, digital signature, citizen portal - My.gov.ge, unified Demographic Registry, visual recognition, and accelerated services. Giorgi Vashadze’s projects had significantly contributed to augmenting corrupted practices that dominated public sector, and aided Georgia’s impeccable fight and win over corruption.^[4]

After assuming office as a deputy minister of Justice in 2010, Giorgi Vashadze was in charge of the establishment of Public Service Halls. He authored the reforms in the public sector that were aimed to modernize public services and transforming the bureaucratic state apparatus into a citizen-oriented and business-friendly platform through innovative means – Public Service Hall. Development of Georgian Public Service halls led to massive improvements in administrative services and growth of Georgia in World Bank Ease of Doing Business rankings.^[4]

In October 2012, Giorgi Vashadze was elected as a member of the Parliament of Georgia on a party list of the United National Movement (UNM). He was also a member of the United National Movement fraction, deputy chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee, member of the Education, Science and Culture Committee, member of the Commission on Implementation of Quality and Internal Control Procedures of Audit, Financial and Economic, Legal and Organizational Activities of the State Audit Service.^[3] He left the UNM on 5 May 2016, criticizing it for "closed style of governance by a narrow circle of leadership".^[5]

In 2014, Giorgi Vashadze founded an international think-tank Innovation and Development Foundation (IDF) Archived 2021-03-02 at the Wayback Machine that has its headquarters in Tbilisi, Kyiv and Chicago, and provides technical and advisory expertise in modernization, planning and implementation process of large-scale reforms in public sector. IDF has been actively involved in state reforms in different countries since 2014, and contributed to successful transformation in Ukraine towards public procurement (Prozorro),^[6] creation of public service hall (Gotovo),^[7] establishment of National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU),^[8] drafting and adoption of High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) legislation^[9] and enactment of Economic Modernization Act of Ukraine. Innovation and Development Foundation Archived 2021-03-02 at the Wayback Machine run by Giorgi Vashadze is also actively pursuing to adopt and implement the use of blockchain technology in order to aid governance process and strengthen anti-corruption measures.^[10]