{"id":18950,"date":"2024-06-06T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/?p=18950"},"modified":"2024-06-06T05:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T05:30:00","slug":"georgia-revives-deep-water-port-development-this-time-with-help-from-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/?p=18950","title":{"rendered":"Georgia revives deep-water port development, this time with help from China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Georgia\u2019s government is hoping take advantage of its geographic location\u2014the only South Caucasus country with a Black Sea coast\u2014and renewed global interest in the Middle Corridor to attract investment and boost trade. But does it really need China to build its deep-water port?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was news that slipped out just as Georgia was reeling from the country\u2019s parliament overturning a presidential veto of <a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/news\/its-never-been-easier-to-pick-a-side\/\">a so-called &#8216;Russian&#8217; law designed to muzzle independent NGOs<\/a>. Tbilisi\u2019s bid to build a deep-water port on its Black Sea coast, at the small town of Anaklia, is back on the agenda. This time with help from China, although the Georgian government will hold a 51 per cent stake in the port.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/news\/its-never-been-easier-to-pick-a-side\/\">\u2018It\u2019s never been easier to pick a side\u2019<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/voices\/georgia-is-caught-in-a-geopolitical-tug-of-war\/\">Georgia is caught in a geopolitical tug of war<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/news\/why-georgias-foreign-agents-bill-is-so-problematic\/\">Why Georgia\u2019s \u2018foreign agents\u2019 bill is so problematic<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Georgia\u2019s Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili made the announcement at a press conference on May 29, where he said the government had received bids from a Swiss-Luxembourg consortium and a joint offer from China Communications Construction Company and the Singapore-based China Harbour Investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The application is complete, the relevant bank guarantees have been presented,&#8221; said Davitashvili. &#8220;In a few days, we will have clarifications, after which the Chinese consortium will be announced as the winner.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added that China Road and Bridge Corporation and Qingdao Port International will serve as subcontractors to build the port.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A project beset by problems<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Anaklia Deep Sea Port, Georgia\u2019s largest ever infrastructure project, was originally proposed by former president Mikheil Saakashvili more than a decade ago as a Georgia-US joint venture. The first phase of the port was set to be fully operational by December 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since then, however, the project\u2014initially set to cost 2.5 billion US dollars, but now thought to require considerably more investment\u2014has been beset by problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In January 2020, the Georgian government canceled a preexisting contract with the Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC), which had been tasked with building what would be the country\u2019s first deep-water port.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the then Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development Maia Tskitishvili, the reason behind annulling the agreement was that the consortium had not fulfilled its obligations to attract investment of 400 million US dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Mamuka Khazaradze, a former chairman of the ADC supervisory board and a founder of an opposition party, Lelo, said at the time that then PM Giorgi Gakharia and Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia\u2019s richest person and the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, had been \u201cpersonally involved\u201d in disrupting the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Disputes between the consortium and the Georgian government had intensified in 2019 after Conti Group International, a major US investor, decided to pull out from the project. While both Gakharia government and that of his predecessor Mamuka Bakhtadze had came out in support of the project several times, the ADC accused the government of sabotage aimed at halting the project, when it failed to issue state guarantees for the 400 million US dollars loan the consortium needed to secure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A dangerous development<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Since then, the Georgian government has tried to find a new developer for Anaklia, but without success\u2014until last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Georgia\u2019s opposition have been quick to condemn the selection China to complete the project. According to Marika Mikiashvili of Georgia&#8217;s opposition Droa party, &#8220;It\u2019s indicative that the Chinese-Singaporean company was chosen just a day after the Russian law was adopted. It\u2019s all part of the bigger picture. Coupling it with the offshore law as well, which exempts assets brought into Georgia from offshore jurisdictions from all duties and taxes, and you have a safe haven for all Russian money and beyond, any illicit business.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As with the law that will make life almost impossible for the country\u2019s NGOs, the Georgian government appears to be in no mood to back down, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Irakli Kobakhidze, Georgia\u2019s prime minister, defended the decision stating that, \u201cthis is one of the largest Chinese state companies, which has great experience, including in the implementation of this type of projects. Winning this tender ensures that the Anaklia project will be implemented at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to RFE, however, while the selected Chinese firms have extensive global experience, they\u2019ve also courted international controversy and scandal, from fraud accusations in the Philippines to bribery in Bangladesh. Two companies in the consortium have also been banned from participating in World Bank-financed construction projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8216;Handing over the port to China&#8217;<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>That there is a need for Anaklia is not in doubt. As supply chains reconfigure to exclude Russia in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine, interest in the so-called Middle Corridor\u2014 also called TITR (Trans-Caspian International Transport Route), a trade route from Southeast Asia and China to Europe via Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey\u2014has surged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Indeed, the trade route\u2019s current capacity has struggled to keep up with the surge in demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Georgia\u2019s government is hoping take advantage of its geographic location\u2014the only South Caucasus country with a Black Sea coast\u2014and renewed global interest in the Middle Corridor to attract investment and boost trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Anaklia could be a key aspect of Georgia\u2019s strategic connectivity with the West, as well as a platform to ensure that the Eastern part of the Black Sea is also under the Western security architecture and the area is denied to Russia,&#8221; adds Marika Mikiashvili. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;However, Georgian Dream is&#8230;essentially handing over the port to China. Just 36 kilometres away from Anaklia, at Ochamchire in Russian-occupied Abkhazia, Russia plans on constructing a naval base as it cannot operate in Crimea or even its own sovereign ports any longer. We will thus have a Russo-Chinese tandem in the Eastern Black Sea, further undermining Georgia\u2019s sovereignty and its reputation as a secure business environment for Western companies as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Anaklia Deep Sea Port would also be an important infrastructure in the entire Middle Corridor, and the whole point of the Middle Corridor is to reduce the interests of Russia and regimes in close relationships with Moscow.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>U<\/strong><span><strong style=\"font-weight: bold;\">nlike many news and information platforms,&nbsp;<em>Emerging Europe<\/em>&nbsp;is free to read, and always will be.&nbsp;There is no paywall here.&nbsp;We are independent,&nbsp;not affiliated with nor representing any political party or business&nbsp;organisation.&nbsp;We want the very best for emerging Europe, nothing more, nothing less. Your support will help us continue to spread the word about this amazing region.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You can contribute&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/emergingeurope.krtra.com\/t\/NlQnFuOA2C9c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. Thank you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/emergingeurope.krtra.com\/t\/NlQnFuOA2C9c\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/copy-of-add-a-heading.png\" alt=\"emerging europe support independent journalism\" class=\"wp-image-50811\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Georgia\u2019s government is hoping take advantage of its geographic location\u2014the only South Caucasus country with a Black Sea coast\u2014and renewed global interest in the Middle Corridor<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7429,7430,6674,21,6320,379,7126,7431],"class_list":["post-18950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","tag-anaklia-deep-sea-port","tag-anaklia-development-consortium","tag-china","tag-economy-politics","tag-featured","tag-georgia","tag-infrastructure","tag-middle-corridor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}