His term was marked by an economic collapse caused by the fall of the USSR and the Georgian Civil War and Gotsiridze secured Georgia's first international loans and rolled out the kuponi, the first national currency.
He also briefly served as President of the Economic Freedom and Private Property League of Georgia, a free market NGO, as well as chairman of the Supervisory Board of the investment hedge fund Georgian Capital in 1995-1996.
He was a strong proponent of the price liberalization and privatizations and was regularly opposed by Avtandil Margiani, an influential fellow deputy prime minister in charge of supervising agricultural policy.
[2] As Deputy Prime Minister, Roman Gotsiridze oversaw the creation of the kuponi, a temporary currency meant to replace the Russian ruble.
Though the state had no existing foreign currency reserve, he secured a loan from the Dutch government to make the country's initial deposits for membership in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
He was also opposed to the idea of creating a free trade zone in Adjara and regularly raised concerns about the Adjarian Autonomous Republic's lack of financial transfers to the central government.
[5] He was critical of a 2002 bill that would have allowed the President to reschedule the debts of state-owned enterprises[6] and called for drastic expenditure cuts to avoid IMF sanctions.
[10] Ahead of the 2003 parliamentary election, Roman Gotsiridze joined the Republican Party,[11] a liberal political organization aligned with the National Movement (UNM), and was placed in 6th position on the opposition coalition's electoral list.
[12] Despite winning a seat in Parliament, massive voter fraud led to the Rose Revolution and the cancellation of the electoral results, while the National Movement gained power when Mikheil Saakashvili was elected President.
[17] He called on the authorities to adopt a softer economic stance towards the separatist South Ossetia, opposing the permanent closure of the Ergneti Market in the conflict zone.
[20] In charge of the country's monetary system, he sought to increase the National Bank's standing at the international level and cooperated closely with European institutions, including Germany's Deutsche Bundesbank, with which he negotiated a training program for NBG employees.
[28] However, the Russia-Georgia diplomatic crisis, which included a stiff increase in energy prices for Georgia and a Russian embargo on Georgian products led to a new rise in inflation,[29] which reached 14.5% in August 2006.
[30] Kakha Bendukidze criticized him at the time for failing to reduce the risks posed by the large inflow of foreign investments, while the IMF warned Georgia to tighten its monetary policy.
Vladimer Papava, an economist and UNM MP, argued that the real inflation rate was higher in 2007 than the official figures, although laying the blame on the Russian embargo instead of the NBG.
[32] On July 11, 2007, Parliament refused to approve his annual report and instead passed a series of recommendations, including a stronger forecast of inflation, a focus on the negative consequences of the lari's appraciation, increased supervision over commercial banks, and a reduction in the NBG's administrative expenses.
Gotsiridze claimed that the parliamentary backlash against him had political connotations, with Speaker Nino Burjanadze eyeing the NBG presidency for her ally Irakli Kovzanadze.
He served in that position until the end of President Saakashvili's term in 2013 and his mandate coincided with the economic fallout of the 2008 Russo-Georgia War and the global recession.
He remained an independent voice in government, criticizing corruption in the free distribution of public lands to private owners and siding against the move of Parliament from Tbilisi to Kutaisi.
[39] Originally skeptical of the party's chances of surviving the split,[40] he was chosen to chair the remaining UNM parliamentary faction on January 23, 2017, replacing Nika Melia,[41] after a brief meeting with Saakashvili in Kyiv.
[43] Roman Gotsiridze served as Deputy Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee in 2016-2020 and routinely criticized the National Bank for its loose monetary policy.
[45] In 2019, he spearheaded the opposition's campaign against the nomination by President Salome Zourabichvili of Davit Narmania as head of the National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission.
[49] As Chairman of the UNM Faction in Parliament, he's been credited with keeping the party's legislative work alive despite a large "brain drain" following the European Georgia split.
[52] During international negotiations, his faction called on Western powers to impose sanctions on Russia over the borderization of the South Ossetian administrative boundary line.
His party at the time called for the resignation of the government, the appointment of early parliamentary elections, and speeding up the transition to a fully proportional electoral system.
[57] Following the failure by Georgian Dream to pass a compromise constitutional amendment on the transition to a fully proportional electoral system, he announced his faction's boycott of the legislature and notably place a bike lock on the doors of the Parliament's main hall.
[60] Following the March 8, 2020, agreement between Georgian Dream and the opposition, Roman Gotsiridze announced an end to his boycott so that his faction could vote in a proposed electoral reform that reduced the number of majoritarian districts.
[61] He remained strongly critical of the authorities, however, and accused President Zourabichvili of reneging on the agreement after her refusal to pardon UNM activist Giorgi Rurua.
[63] He was also critical of the poor financial aid provided to families during the economic crisis[64] and accused the government of violating checks and balances for failing to have its anti-crisis plan approved in Parliament.
[79] Roman Gotsiridze has been opposed to increasing welfare programs[80] and subsidies to the wine industry,[81] while supporting decreasing funding to the Georgian Public Broadcaster.