Three years after the closure of the port project in Anaklia

Mamuka Khazaradze, leader of the opposition Lelo party, recalls that three years have passed since the failure of the Anaklia deepwater port construction project.

Khazaradze published a post on the social network today, in which he accuses the former and current Prime Ministers of Georgia – Irakli Garibashvili and Giorgi Gakharia. One of the former leaders of the consortium that was supposed to build the port believes that it was done on the instructions of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Mamuka Khazaradze and his business partner Badri Japaridze, who founded the largest TBC bank in Georgia, created the opposition political party Lelo after the failure of the port project. A criminal case was opened against them – the bankers were accused of money laundering, but in court the charge was reclassified as “fraud” and, over the years, the bankers avoided criminal prosecution.

“Almost three years have passed since the Mechta government, on the instructions of Bidzina Ivanishvili, failed the port project in Anaklia and began to carry out a dirty campaign against me and Badri Japaridze. By these actions of the government of the former Prime Minister Gakharia and the current Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, they caused great damage to our country, comparable to the betrayal of the people and the country.

Have you had at least one meeting during these three years with the four international banks that financed this project with $400 million? I no longer ask whether you met with those American and European investors who invested 80 million in this project.

Has an attempt been made to build a road or railway to Anaklia? Or at least make such a project? (everyone knows that the port cannot operate without a road or a railway).

During this period, you actively promoted the construction of a deep-water port in Poti. Have you already built it?

If today we had Anaklia, we would be a completely different country!” writes Mamuka Khazaradze.

History of the unfinished port in Anaklia
The construction of a new deep-water port in Anaklia began in December 2017, but six months later, when the deepening of the water area had already begun, the work was stopped.

Initially, the state planned to transfer the construction of the port entirely to the private sector and announced a tender with these conditions in 2016.

The winner was the Anaklia Port Development Consortium, which was founded by TBC Holding and the American company Conti International LLC, creating Anaklia Holding JSC. It was the participation of an American company that was a prerequisite for the state.

In January 2020, the authorities terminated the contract with the Anaklia Development Consortium, which was supposed to build a deep-sea port in Anaklia, citing the investor’s failure to meet financial obligations.

In the summer of the same year, the Consortium, together with one of the foreign investors in the project, Bob Meyer, brought claims against the Georgian government to independent arbitration courts. They demand to recover financial losses, which, according to them, exceed $ 1 billion, and to restore the terminated agreement.