President’s office said on June 24 that it is launching an “open process” to select a candidate for Georgia’s central bank governor, who will replace Giorgi Kadagidze after his term in office expires.

The announcement comes eight months before the expiration of incumbent governor Giorgi Kadagidze’s seven-year term in office.

According to the constitution a candidate for a vacant seat in central bank’s seven-member board has to be named by the President and then confirmed by the Parliament. The President, according to the constitution, appoints one of the members of the board as central bank governor. But the law on the National Bank of Georgia specifies that the board members select among themselves a candidate for central bank chief and submit the nomination to the President for confirmation. So technically the process will now involve selection of a new board member.

“Upon President’s instruction from today I am starting a very open process for selecting a successor of Mr. Kadagidze,” President’s economic adviser, Giorgi Abashishvili, said on June 24.

“Consultations will be held with international financial institutions, non-governmental organizations, relevant expert community, business associations, banking sector, government ministries with economic portfolio and with the National Bank itself,” Abashishvili added.

Speaking at a news conference, Abashishvili also reiterated the President’s strong opposition to the bill that would strip the Georgian National Bank of supervisory functions of financial institutions and transfer them to a separate agency. The bill sponsored by two lawmakers from the Georgian Dream ruling coalition has also been criticized by business associations, as well as by the International Monetary Fund.

“Neither sponsors nor supporters of this bill have yet presented even a small professional argument why this change should be introduced, except of one that Mr. Kadagidze is unacceptable for them,” the President’s economic adviser said.

“We deem such process of destroying institutions because of individual persons categorically unacceptable,” Abashishvili said. “The proposed changes pose threat to macroeconomic stability and efficient monetary policy; supporters of this bill will have to bear responsibility for the consequences.”