President Saakashvili said he was appointing former PM, Lado Gurgenidze, as his envoy for the international energy projects with the focus on Nabucco gas pipeline.

“Lado Gurgenidze, who has not been in Georgia recently for family reasons, is now coming back and I want to request him to work on energy projects, in particular on Nabucco project to represent Georgia and President on this issue,” Saakashvili told the government members on January 30, while nominating Nika Gilauri as new PM, replacing Grigol Mgaloblishvili.

“We should work on lobbying this [Nabucco] project, which is of fundamentally importance for Georgia. I myself intend to activate my efforts in this direction. This means hundreds of millions of investments in Georgia’s infrastructure and energy sector.”

After replacing Gurgenidze with Mgaloblishvili on the PM’s position in late October, Saakashvili said that he was appointing Gurgenidze to co-chair a new commission dealing with “maintaining financial stability” and investments.