Gov't to cancel deal with Anaklia Development Consortium to build deep sea port
Construction of Anaklia Deep Sea Port started in 2017. Photo: Anaklia Development Consortium.
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The Georgian government will begin procedures to cancel the investment agreement signed with the Anaklia Development Consortium on October 3, 2016 to build the Anaklia Deep Sea Port.
The consortium has been unable to obtain the needed $400 million in loans from international financial institutions and $120 million from potential investors by the official expiration of the term limits at the end of 2019.
Procedures will start to prepare a new tender for further development of the Anaklia Deep Sea Port, says the Ministry of Infrastructure.
Tskitishvili says that Georgia needs the Anaklia Deep Sea Port and it will be built in any case.
Georgia needs the Anaklia Deep Sea Port for its economy, safety and use of logistics potential,” says Tskitishvili.
Minister of Infrastructure Tskitishvili said that the government is starting a search for a new partner to build the Anaklia Deep Sea Port.
The opening of the port and the receiving of ships in Anaklia was planned for 2021. Photo: Anaklia Development Consortium.
The consortium claims that the government has not helped, but rather sabotaged the project.
Instead of supporting, the government has practically sabotaged this project in the last several months," said Levan Akhvlediani, general director of the Anaklia Development Consortium on October 15, 2019.
Akhvlediani also announced in December 2019 that if the Georgian government were to cancel the agreement with Anaklia Development Consortium, the consortium would bring the case to arbitration.
Akhvlediani then added that negotiations with investors were ongoing but it had some difficulties because of recent months’ developments around the project.
The deadline for obtaining the funding has been postponed six times.
The Georgian government did not cancel the investment agreement with Anaklia Development Consortium on October 15 despite the expired deadline for the consortium to fulfil its interim obligations.
The Anaklia Development Consortium won a state tender to construct the port and signed a deal with the government in 2016 with TBC Holding as its principal partner, but has faced problems in attracting the $2.5 billion in funds needed to construct the port.
Construction of Anaklia Deep Sea Port started in 2017.
The Georgian government will discuss the investment agreement signed with Anaklia Development Consortium to build the Anaklia Deep Sea Port as the consortium was unable to obtain the needed $400 million in loans from international financial institutions and $120 million from potential investors by the official expiration of the term limits at the end of 2019.
General Director of the Anaklia Development Consortium Levan Akhvlediani said earlier today that if Georgian government cancels the agreement with Anaklia Development Consortium on the building of the Anaklia Deep Sea Port, the consortium will start arbitration dispute.
Meridian Capital Limited investment firm says it’s unable to participate in the Anaklia Deep Sea Port project at this stage, announces the Ministry of Infrastructure.
The Dutch company Van Oord, an international contractor specialising in dredging, marine engineering and offshore projects (oil, gas and wind), has become the owner of four per cent of shares of the Anaklia Development Consortium.
Anaklia Development Consortium is going to appeal to the International Court of Justice in response to the Georgian government’s cancellation of the investment agreement with the consortium to build the Anaklia Deep Sea Port.
The Anaklia Development Consortium, which has been overseeing the Anaklia deep sea port since 2016, announced yesterday that it “remains committed to finding a way forward for the future success of the project” and hopes that it may be possible to resolve its dispute with the Government of Georgia amicably.
The Georgian government says that the Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC) has the right to start arbitration but that the government is not going to renew the agreement with the ADC to build the Anaklia Deep Sea Port.
US congressman Adam Kinzinger says that he believes in the government of Georgia when they say the Anaklia deep sea port project is important for them, and has thus urged the government to allow American investments into the port project as soon as possible during an interview with the Georgian bureau of Voice of America.
The Anaklia Development Consortium and major foreign investor Bob Meyer have filed independent arbitration claims against Georgia on July 29 over their infringed rights in the Anaklia Port project.
Georgian Economy Minister Natia Turnava has commented on the Anaklia Development Consortium’s decision to file arbitration claim against Georgia and said that the consortium is trying to politicise the issue and prevent the government from finding a new investor.
The Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC), the company originally selected by the government of Georgia to develop the Anaklia Port project, has released a statement today which claims the government ran a campaign ‘to undermine the project by dissuading potential project investors, lenders, contractors and suppliers from joining the project in order to kill it'.
The Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC) says that the Georgian government admits that a new tender to build Anaklia Port is likely to fail as there is a risk that an investor may not be found due to the potential arbitration dispute between the Georgian government and the ADC.
The Georgian government will start the process of selecting a new potential investor for the Anaklia Deep Sea Port project in the near future, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced earlier today.
The Georgian Government has plans to hire a consulting group which will ensure aid in selection of investors and other mandatory procedures for facilitating the construction of the deep sea port in Georgia’s Black Sea town of Anaklia, Georgian Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili said on Monday.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Thursday said the Anaklia deep-sea port on western Georgia’s Black Sea coast would be 51 percent owned by the state after its completion and an international competition to select investors would be announced for the remaining 49 percent, in his address at a panel discussion of the World Economic Forum in Davos.