Anaklia Education Hub and MSME Grants Program to Promote the Region

On February 28, the CEO of Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC) Levan Akhvlediani, USAID Mission Director Peter Wiebler and the Governor of the region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti, Aleksandre Motserelia opened the Anaklia Education Hub and announced the launch of the MSME Grants Program within the scope of the Anaklia Community and Economic Development (ACED) program, in the Palm Beach Hotel in Anaklia.

Anaklia Community and Economic Development (ACED) is a joint initiative of Anaklia Development Consortium and USAID Zrda Activity, designed to promote the regional economic development of Anaklia and its surrounding environs, support the increase of the competitiveness and growth of MSMEs in the region, build and sustain a qualified workforce to meet the high demands of the market for the port operations, as well as the wider economy in the region, and facilitate the development of community infrastructure necessary to the region.

“USAID is extremely proud for the collabortaion with the Anaklia Development Consortium and support small and medium-sized enterprises and businesses here, in the communities around Anaklia. We will help these MSMEs to create jobs, expand and become competitive in Anaklia, as well as across the entire Georgia,” USAID Mission Director Peter Wiebler told The Messenger. 

With this in mind, ACED program is launching the first in Anaklia Education Hub aimed to open an access to skills development for future employment opportunities within the port itself and surrounding businesses, expected to develop alongside the growth of the port and the free economic zone. The Anaklia Education Hub will offer a variety of training courses in English language, and computer skills, entrepreneurship, Business Administration, tourism and agriculture that will increase the professional capacity of local population by offering a series of interventions to support a sustainable transformational development of the local communities.

“Our key aim is to train locals to become better professionals and to employ them, as well as support MSMEs and promote regional economic development. We are more than happy to cooperate with USAID/Zrda. With the joint efforts we will manage to strengthen the region, create employment opportunities and train as many people as possible to have good professionals after the first phase of the Anaklia Deep Sea Port is completed,”- the CEO of Anaklia Development Consortium Levan Akhvlediani said.

ACED also introduces the grant program for agriculture and non-agriculture sector development to support micro, small and medium size enterprise growth in line with the technical support to improve business and technical skills through trainings.

The Anaklia Community and Economic Development Program will provide support to communities in the West Georgia to maximize their ability to capitalize on the economic development opportunities presented by the $2.5 billion Anaklia Deep Sea Port mega project, which is a joint initiative of the Georgian-U.S. consortium. The new deep-water port is expected to transform Georgia into a regional economic hub and a key link and transport corridor between Asia and Europe. Construction of Georgia’s first deep sea port started in December 2017, and the first phase of the project - construction of the primary container terminal - will be completed by the end of 2020, which also coincides with the timeline of the joint development program between USAID Zrda and ADC.