US investors present Anaklia Port development project

A development project at the Anaklia Black Sea Port has been revealed by American-based company The Conti Group. The port is located near Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia.

The facilities and infrastructure development company offered the Georgian Government a plan to construct a port with a capacity of 100 million ton per year.

Meanwhile, a Japanese company has already begun a feasibility study of the proposed port. The research was financed by the Partnership Fund; the state-owned Fund created to attract investments from abroad. The Fund focuses on co-financing projects in the energy, agriculture, real estate, and industrial sectors.

The Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia said the qualified analysis of the capacity of the Black Sea transport and logistical hub would be announced in four months.

Last November, the Vice Prime Minister and Ministry of Economy Giorgi Kvirikashvili said the research would also show the feasibility of building a new international airport, a liquefied natural gas terminal, as well as logistic and industrial zones.

"The Government needs high quality research in order to be able to produce a high quality document that will subsequently be submitted to the banking institutions,” Kvirikashvili said on November 25, 2013.

Based in Edison, New Jersey, and founded in 1906, The Conti Group operates in the Energy, Environmental, Industrial and Infrastructure markets for public and private customers.

In early December 2011, the previous government considered building a new Lazika City and Port on Georgia's Black Sea, between Anaklia and Kulevi in the north, from the port town of Poti.

At the time, ex-president Saakshvili announced at least half a million people would live in the city in the next ten years, but it initially required 1-1.5 billion GEL for the city to be built.

There were many controversial ideas about the future importance of the proposed projects. After the new Government came in power, the project momentum stopped however it has since said building the Anaklia Port is still possible.