10 Facts About Vera Kobalia

Vera Kobalia was born on 24 August 1981 and is a Georgian politician who has served in the Cabinet of Georgia as the country's Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development from 2 July 2010 to 25 October 2012.

Vera Kobalia attended King George Secondary School, and subsequently the British Columbia Institute of Technology in Burnaby, British Columbia, where in 2004 she graduated with a degree in business administration and informational technologies.

Vera Kobalia lived in Canada until late 2009 where she worked for European Breads Bakery, the Vancouver-based company started by her father in 2001, after which she moved back to Georgia.

In February 2010, Vera Kobalia co-founded the Coalition for Justice, an organization dedicated to the preservation of the rights internally displaced persons within Georgia, and to increase public awareness of the problems of Georgian IDPs around the world.

In June 2010, Vera Kobalia was appointed by President Mikheil Saakashvili as the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development in the Cabinet of Georgia, and her appointment was confirmed by the Parliament of Georgia on 2 July 2010.

Vera Kobalia said that agriculture and tourism would be the two biggest priority sectors of her tenure, and she vowed to reorganize her department under the slogan "no nepotism" to help purge institutional corruption in government.

Vera Kobalia's appointment prompted skepticism because of Vera Kobalia's young age and lack of political experience.

Vera Kobalia first came to President Saakashvili's attention four months before her appointment when a delegation of Vancouver's Georgian community met with the president while he was in town for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Vera Kobalia is the only Georgian politician who won this award.

Vera Kobalia lost her position after Saakashvili's United National Movement lost majority of parliamentary seats to the Georgian Dream coalition in the 1 October 2012 parliamentary election.