1. Kakha Bendukidze was a Georgian statesman, businessman and philanthropist, founder of the Knowledge Foundation and head of the supervisory board of Agricultural and Free Universities.
19 Facts About Kakha Bendukidze
1. 2.
Kakha Bendukidze led a working group on tax and currency within the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and pressed for changes in tax policy, which ultimately included adoption of a flat 13 percent tax rate.
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Soon Kakha Bendukidze sold his stake and moved back to Georgia.
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Kakha Bendukidze served as Georgian Minister of Economy, Minister for Reform Coordination and Head of the Chancellery of Government of Georgia.
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Kakha Bendukidze created a charity called the Knowledge Foundation, and he was the force behind the establishment of the Free University of Tbilisi and the Agricultural University of Georgia.
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Kakha Bendukidze took an active role in helping the new government of Ukraine during its confrontation with Russia in 2014.
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Kakha Bendukidze was born in Tbilisi, USSR, and graduated from the Department of Biology of Tbilisi State University in 1977 and from the Postgraduate School of the Moscow State University in 1980.
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Kakha Bendukidze took over the Knowledge Fund management from 2016, and married Ivan Mkheidze in 2017.
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In March 1999, Kakha Bendukidze married Natalia Zolotova, who has 2 sons from the previous marriage; her first husband died.
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Kakha Bendukidze became a board member and later, Director-General of this company.
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Under Kakha Bendukidze, OMZ became one of Russia's largest heavy engineering companies and he was one of the top twenty business leaders with an influential voice on economic policy.
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Kakha Bendukidze returned to Georgia after the Rose Revolution victory, having been appointed Minister of Economy in the new Saakashvili cabinet.
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Kakha Bendukidze says that Georgia should be ready to sell 'everything that can be sold, except its conscience, and that is just the start.
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Kakha Bendukidze was known as a committed libertarian and strong supporter of market economy, deregulation and privatization, stating that the Georgian government should sell everything except its honor.
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Kakha Bendukidze was pivotal in the libertarian reforms launched under Saakashvili, including one of the least restrictive labour codes, the lowest flat income tax rates and some of the lowest customs rates worldwide, along with the drastic reduction of licenses and permits for business.
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Kakha Bendukidze was criticized for repealing anti-monopoly legislation and introducing a liberal labor code.
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Somewhat earlier, in May 2014 Kakha Bendukidze accepted the invitation of the President of Ukraine to become a member of the Economic Advisory Council.
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Kakha Bendukidze died on the 13 November 2014 in the InterContinental Hotel on Park Lane in London, after undergoing a stent heart surgery in Zurich a week prior.
19.
The former president of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili had expressed interest for Kakha Bendukidze to be buried on Mtatsminda in Tbilisi, in the Pantheon of public figures and writers of Georgia, but the wish of the family was that Kakha Bendukidze be buried next to his mother's grave in the Kukia Cemetery in Tbilisi.