Anaklia Development Consortium calls govt's decision of Anaklia Port construction 'absurd'
By Liza Mchedlidze
Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Anaklia Development Consortium responded to the statement made by Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili at the government meeting regarding the Anaklia Port construction plan of which 51% will be owned by the state and government plans on announcing the invitation of tender to attract investment.
According to the consortium, during the speech regarding the Anaklia port project, Prime Minister Gharibashvili gave a lot of false information about the Anaklia project and its past history.
"Yesterday, Irakli Gharibashil presented a future plan related to the Anaklia project, which has not been successful.
We would like to remind the Prime Minister that an arbitration dispute is ongoing between the Anaklia Development Consortium and the Government of Georgia at the Geneva International Chamber of Commerce. He will have to answer for all the false statements made today," the consortium said.
The statement highlighted some of the most 'dramatically false and misleading points' in the Prime Minister's speech.
Consortium called the idea that the Georgian state could find a serious private investor for the port of Anaklia while planning to take a 51% controlling interest in the project, an 'absurd'.
According to them, It is quite clear that the government has not been able to find a suitable investor or port operator willing to undertake this project amid the ongoing arbitration dispute and a politicized Georgian judicial system that the government has failed to reform.
The consortium assessed the government's intention to invest USD 300 million in the Anaklia port project in the form of cash from the budget or other public funds, as 'unbelievable' as "they have refused to even provide 50 million USD as a guarantee" (not cash) to facilitate ADC to build the port in obtaining financing.
Anaklia Development Consortium's press release reads that the idea that the Prime Minister wants the government to "urgently" proceed with the Anaklia project is 'clearly false'.
According to them, the government has 'done nothing for almost three years after the termination of the Anaklia project' and in February 2020 they even said that they would announce an invitation to tender "within two weeks."
They called Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili's statements about Anaklia's development plans 'insincere' and 'absurd'.
The consortium said that they want to see the development of Anaklia port "plain and simple."
"This latest government scheme has no chance of success and we think the government knows it. This is another case where the government stops and wants to blame others for its failure," the statement reads.
