An expected cabinet reshuffle will affect more than half of the current ministers, Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said on January 17.

He said that Giorgi Arveladze, the economy minister, would not retain his portfolio in the new cabinet. “Arveladze plans to go into business,” Gurgenidze said on a live late-night political talk-show aired by Rustavi 2 TV.

PM Gurgenidze said the new cabinet, to be formed after Mikheil Saakashvili’s inauguration on January 20, would, as the prime minister put it, contain at least one “new face.” Sandro Kvitashvili - who has never been involved in politics before - “will be back in Georgia after spending six years in New York,” and will be offered a ministerial position, Gurgenidze said. He gave no other details. 

Apart from that, the prime minister refused to give any other details on the composition of the new cabinet. “[That's] ... all I can say at this stage,” he said.

He did, however, confirm that structural reform of the government was on the way. Several vice-premiers, instead of the current one, Gurgenidze said, were on the cards. He denied that the break-up of the Ministry for Healthcare and Social Welfare was planned. “Personally I am against this kind of break-up,” he added.