McCain Institute head says completing Anaklia Port Project of strategic importance
Volker said that this port has tremendous potential as a project that will strategically reinforce Georgia’s independence as a growing economic power. Photo: Anaklia Development Consortium.
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Completing the Anaklia Port project is of strategic importance, the Executive Director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership Kurt Volker said in an exclusive interview with Georgia Today published on September 2.
Volker touched on disagreements between the Anaklia Development Consortium and the government.
There are obviously issues around financing for the project - [the government] says that the consortium has been unable to secure sufficient financing and [the consortium] is asking too much from the government for a private project - so, [you have] conflicting narratives”, said Volker.
Volker said that Georgia is a small country wedged between Russian and Iran, which is a potential transit hub for commerce from Central Asia to Europe and from Europe to Central Asia.
[Anaklia Port] is a way of linking Georgia’s economy to a global economy and the way of linking the economy of Central Asia to the global economy through Georgia. So, it has great potential to be an additional element in creating economical alternative, stability, growth and attraction for further investment in Georgia and region”, said Volker.
The latest timeline presented by the consortium says that the construction of the port will be completed in June of 2022 instead of announced 2020. Photo: Anaklia Port.
He also added that this port has tremendous potential as a project that will strategically reinforce Georgia’s independence as a growing economic power.
As for Russia's opinion that the Anaklia project is a threat as it could bring US and NATO submarines into the area, Volker referred it as a typical example of how the Russian propaganda machine works.
This is a typical example of how the Russian propaganda machine works. There’s nothing in this project that is driven by war considerations or the involvement of the US military; this is about the economic development of Georgia and region”, said Volker.
Georgian government members, the Anaklia Development Consortium and international finance organisations (EBRD, OPIC, ADB, and AIIB) met in May to discuss the details of the Anaklia Deep Sea Water project development.
The meeting discussed eight demands that international financial institutions requested to be fulfilled in order to further invest in the project.
The construction of Anaklia Deep Sea Port started in 2017. Photo: Anaklia Port.
The proposed changes include insuring the commercial risks of an investor, regulation of development phases of the port and reimbursement of damage generated by legislative amendments.
The construction of Anaklia Deep Sea Port started in 2017, while the opening of the first phase of the port and the receiving of ships in Anaklia was planned for 2021.
The latest timeline presented by the consortium says that the construction of the port will be completed in June of 2022 instead of announced 2020, announced the Ministry of Infrastructure on July 30.
Despite unprecedented support from the government, the project has so far failed to obtain the needed $400 million in loans from international financial institutions and to put forward its own capital of $120 million.
The deadline for obtaining the funding has been postponed several times and the consortium was to have met this obligation by the end of 2019.
Conti Group, the US-based construction and development company and founder of the Anaklia Development Consortium together with TBC Holding, is leaving the consortium, announces Georgian media outlet accentnews.ge.
TBC Bank founders Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze have stated that they will leave top managerial posts in the Anaklia Development Consortium to “protect the Anaklia Port project and end speculations.”Khazaradze chairs the managing council of the consortium, which is tasked to attract funds for the $2.5 billion port construction, while Japaridze is his deputy.
"The implementation of the project is not in the interests of people who connect the port and other, separate issues [the filing of charge against TBC founders]. We have expressed our full support for the project and done our best for it to be implemented, starting from taking on financial obligations to negotiations with financial institutions and investors,” Bakhtadze said.
The government of Georgia will prolong the term for submitting financial closer documents for the The decision to extend the deadline to accumulate the necessary funds was made at today’s government meeting. Georgian Infrastructure Minister Maya Tskitishvili said this is the sixth time the term has been prolonged.Anaklia Development Consortium, which is overseeing the Anaklia deep sea port, by six months.
No project has received more state support than the Anaklia project, announced the candidate for Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure Maia Tskitishvili yesterday in parliament.
The Anaklia deep sea port does not belong to a single person, but is rather an integral part of the development of the country, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia announced today.
The Anaklia Development Consortium says it has found two new potential investors for the Anaklia Deep Sea Port in addition to the current investors of SSA Marine from the United States and TBC Holding from Georgia, announced the Anaklia Development Consortium today.
Georgian Minister of Infrastructure Maia Tskitishvili said earlier today that if the Anaklia Development Consortium fails to finalise agreements with potential investors and financial institutions to bring in $520 million in total in investments, the government may cancel its investment agreement with the consortium.