What was the first year like in terms of the development of the Anaklia Port, how did the project of the century progress and what are its plans like? The Anaklia Development Consortium and Anaklia City arranged a summery presentation of the 1-year development of the deep water port and special economic zone. The presentation was attended by the Government officials, private sector teams, representatives of the business circles etc. people interested in the project of the century. The Management of the Anaklia Port and Anaklia City reported what had been accomplished in the 1-year and outlined its immediate plans. “The Anaklia Port is extremely important to our country. It would be no overstatement to say that we enjoy both the governmental support and that of the major international financial institutions and influential political circles, which is evidence enough of the port’s regional and global significance,”- Mr. Badri Japaridze, co-founder of the Anaklia project stated.
“Georgia is the only Black Sea basin country which does not have a deep sea port as a result of which 75% of the container ships entering the Black Sea are unable to sail in Georgia’s costal waters. The Anaklia Deep Sea Port is going to make our corridor competitive, so that the country can make use of the economic value provided by its geographic situation”, Mr. Levan Akhvlediani, Director General of the Anaklia Development Consortium said.
“Both the Georgian and the international companies will be able to set up their facilities, warehouses etc. industrial infrastructure in the Special Economic Zone in Anaklia, which is going to be fully integrated with the marine, road and railway infrastructure. Also, owing to its Special Economic Zone status, there will be tax breaks there. The companies will have ready-to-use industrial infrastructure – roads, power, natural gas, water supply, sewage, fire protection systems, as well as high degree safety”, – Ms. Keti Bochorishvili, Executive Director of Anaklia City pointed out.
The 2019 plans were also discussed in the presentation. The tender involving some of the key international companies to be over in January is going to reveal the prime contractor of the Anaklia port.
The first stage large-scale marine works at Anaklia Deep Sea Port completed on 16 September 2018. By then Athena, the major dredging vessel had pumped 5 million m3 of sand out of the sea bottom and poured it on the land. At the same time, the drainage hi-tech provided by the major Dutch Van Oord company were installed, too and the port grounds were prepared for the nest stage marine and land works. Over 1500 people were employed in the first stage marine and land works, whose investment value hit 600 mln USD.
The first ships are going to call in at the Anaklia port in late 2020.