Vera Kobalia

Vera Kobalia
Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development
In office 2 July 2010 – 25 October 2012
President	Mikheil Saakashvili
Preceded by	Zurab Pololikashvili
Succeeded by	Giorgi Kvirikashvili
Personal details
Born	24 August 1981 Sukhumi, Georgia
Website	Government of Georgia

Vera Kobalia (Georgian: ვერა ქობალია) (born August 24, 1981) 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.

Kobalia was born in 1981 in Sukhumi in the disputed Georgian region of Abkhazia. In 1996, her family emigrated to Canada because of the instability brought about by the Georgian–Abkhazian conflict. She 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.

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, 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, 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 July 2, 2010. 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.

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