Georgian Infrastructure Ministry: Anaklia Port construction unlikely to start in Jan 2020

The Georgian Infrastructure Ministry has urged the Anaklia Development Consortium to give up ‘populist talk’ and launch the construction process as agreed.Photo: Anaklia Development Consortium.

Agenda.ge, 31 Jul 2019 - 17:13, Tbilisi,Georgia

The Georgian Ministry of Infrastructure says it is unlikely that the Anaklia Development Consortium will attract the needed funds to launch the construction of the Anaklia Deep Sea Port in January 2020.

The ministry says that the consortium’s statement that the delay in coming up funds will not influence the construction schedule is wrong.

The latest schedule presented by the consortium says that the construction of the port will be completed in 2022 instead of 2020,” the ministry reports.

The ministry states that “despite unprecedented support from the government” the consortium was unable to receive a 400 million USD loan from international financial institutions for the port construction and the consortium must put forward 120 million USD of its own capital. 

The fact that the time period to attract funds for the construction of the first phase of the port has been postponed several times is confirmation of the government’s support for the project”, the ministry says. 

The ministry stated that the port will be built regardless of the financial difficulties of the consortium. 

Minister of Infrastructure of Georgia Maia Tskitishvili has stated that the 'implementation of the project ‘is not, and cannot possibly be  connected’ with any private individuals or companies.'Photo: Infrastructure Ministry press office. 

The port will be built anyway, with a private or a state investment," the ministry says.

The ministry stated that the government has taken on the obligation of providing an additional 100 million USD for the project before signing the investment agreement and was directly involved in the negotiations between foreign banks and the consortium.

This was a sign of big support,” the ministry says.

The ministry has urged the consortium to start the construction process in a timely manner and not spend time “on populist statements on the importance of the project.”

 TBC Bank founder Mamuka Khazaradze, who represents TBC holding in the Anaklia Consortium, has accused the government of hampering the construction of the port. 

Khazaradze was charged with money laundering earlier this week and was released on 700,000 GEL bail