Starting his career in domestic intelligence through his work for the Financial Police where he led investigations into currency counterfeiting, he was appointed to serve a brief term in 2008 as Governor of Guria, before becoming Deputy Minister of Defense during the 2008 Russo-Georgian War.
In office, he was responsible for the completion of several high-level projects, including the Rikoti Pass and the East-West Highway, while securing international funds to build the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.
[1] From 2003 to 2004, he served as Deputy Chief of the Information and Analysis Department of the Financial Police, the main domestic intelligence agency aimed at investigating white collar crimes, and eventually became head of the police's Statistics and Information Services, a powerful position in the administration of President Mikheil Saakashvili as the latter had waged a large-scale attack against corruption.
Shortly after his second inauguration, President Saakashvili appointed Ramaz Nikolaishvili as Governor of the Black Sea region of Guria as part of his gubernatorial reshuffle, replacing Mikheil Svimonishvili.
As such, he oversaw a 521 million GEL budget to build new roads in 2009 as part of the stimulus package set out by President Saakashvili in response to the economic fallout from the global recession and the Russo-Georgian war.
[6] Among these projects were the Rikoti Tunnel, linking the regions of Imereti and Shida Kartli through the Likhi range,[7] and the so-called "New Road", a highway in downtown Tbilisi meant to alleviate traffic.
In 2011, he signed a memorandum of cooperation with EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn to launch European funding programs in regional development,[13] while successfully negotiating 190 million EUR and 43 million USD in loans and grants from the European Investment Bank[14] and International Development Association[15] respectively to fund the East-West Highway, a major trade road linking Tbilisi to the Western part of the country.
[19] He notably introduced a "10-point plan" destined to modernize Georgia's infrastructure, an employment program meant to create 60,000 construction jobs between 2011 and 2015.
[23] One of the most popular ministers in the Saakashvili administration,[24] a 2011 poll by the International Republican Institute named road infrastructure as "the most important reform" in Georgia.
[29] An audit made by his successor Davit Narmania unveiled several violations in competitive bidding over street lighting contracts,[30] while the ministry launched an investigation in 2014 over allegations that his administration had pressured private developers to launder money, although the case closed with any subpoena.
[41] When a split in the UNM led to the creation of the European Georgia party in 2017, Nikolaishvili chose to remain neutral and became an independent lawmaker, affiliated to no faction.