MOSCOW, June 1 (Xinhuanet) -- Kakha Bendukidze, a Russian entrepreneur, has been appointed Georgia's economics minister, Russian news agencies reported Tuesday.

    Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania told a press conference in the country's capital of Tbilisi that Bendukidze's appointment had been coordinated with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

    The appointment "will be a serious step on the road of reform of the Georgian economy," Zhvania was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying.

    A 48-year-old ethnic Georgian, who has been living in Russia for 28 years, Bendukidze told a news conference in Moscow that he had received "an offer that I couldn't refuse."

    He said that he would step down as the chairman of the board ofdirectors of the United Heavy Machinery concern, a major Russian engineering company specializing in manufacturing and the sale andservicing of equipment for nuclear power plants and mining enterprises.

    "It will be very wrong to be a civil servant in one country andto lead the board of directors of a Russian company at the same time," Bendukidze was quoted as saying.

    He told reporters that he would carry out ultra-liberal reformsin Georgia.

    "Deregulating the economy should be a priority of any economic policy, and in Georgia, it is ultra-liberalism," he was quoted by Interfax as saying.

    Meanwhile he said that he was not afraid of being called an agent of the Kremlin.

    "It is a mistake to think that conspiracies exist. It is a specific quality of the human brain to think that only conspiracies are woven around a single country," he noted.

    Russian politicians and businessmen welcomed Bendukidze's appointment, saying it would strengthen Russia's relations with Georgia.

    "Bendukidze knows well how the Russian economy works, and his knowledge will be very useful in establishing mutually beneficial relations between Georgia and Russia," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying.

    Arkady Volsky, President of Russian Union of Industrialists andEntrepreneurs, said that Bendukidze would benefit Georgia in this post more than any other persons.

    Although Bendukidze is a Russian citizen, this will not preventhim from becoming Georgia's minister, since Saakashvili promised on May 26 to grant Georgian citizenship "to all people of Georgiandescent willing to become Georgian citizens."

    Bendukidze will be the second foreign citizen holding a ministerial post in Georgia's cabinet. In March Salome Zurabishvili, a French diplomat with Georgian descent, was appointed Georgia's foreign minister. She was then French ambassador to Georgia. Enditem