PM Bakhtadze: without a deep sea port Georgia can’t fully use its transit potential
Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze says that the Anaklia Port will definitely be built. Photo: Prime Minister’s press office.
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Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze says that the Anaklia Deep Sea Port project is of strategic importance and without the port Georgia will not be able to fully make use of its transit potential.
We, the Georgian Dream government, initiated the project,” Bakhtadze said, responding to the statements of TBC founder Mamuka Khazaradze and the opposition that the authorities aim to stop the project.
He said that the Anaklia Port “will definitely be built.”
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.
TBC Bank founders Mamuka Khazaradze (L) and Badri Japaridze were charged on July 24. Photo: 1TV.
The Georgian Infrastructure Ministry also released a long statement regarding the issue yesterday, saying that the implementation of the project “is not, and cannot possibly be connected with any private individuals or companies.”
Khazaradze, who has been recently charged with allegedly laundering $16.7 million back in 2008, says that the issue is related to his role in the Anaklia Port Project, representing TBC Holding in the Anaklia Development Consortium.
Anaklia Port is a $2.5 billion project which is designed to connect Europe and Asia with an alternative, shorter route by 2020.
Anaklia Development Consortium is the company which won the state tender back in 2016 to attract funds for the construction.
Founders of the Georgian leading Bank TBC Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze have met journalists in the afternoon amid the controversies related to the money laundering case involving the bank.
The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) has demanded the withdrawal of the head of the supervisory council of the Georgian leading TBC bank Mamuka Khazaradze and the deputy head of the council Badri Japaridze from the council due to a money laundering case being investigated by the Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office.
The Georgian Ministry of Infrastructure has responded to the statement of TBC founder Mamuka Khazaradze, that charges filed against him aim to stop the Anaklia Port Project, and said that the implementation of the project ‘is not, and cannot possibly be connected’ with any private individuals or companies.
TBC Bank founders Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze have officially been charged with laundering $16.7 million in 2007-2008. Khazaradze says that the charge “aims to stop the construction of the Anaklia Deep Sea Port.”
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.
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.