Anaklia Consortium Meet with American Chamber of Commerce

Anaklia Development Consortium representatives met with AmCham members in the Radisson Blu Iveria hotel, Tbilisi, yesterday, in order to introduce the Anaklia Deep Sea Port and Special Economic Zone projects. ADC Founders Mamuka Khazaradze and Kurt Conti talked about the upcoming future plans, while Levan Akhvlediani, ADC CEO, and Ketevan Bochorishvili, Anaklia City CEO, made detailed presentations about the Anaklia Deep Sea Port and Anaklia City projects. 

“Anaklia Deep Sea Port is a very important project. I’m sure the American Chamber of Commerce will be actively involved in the different stages of port construction” R. Michael Cowgill, AmCham President said; while AmCham members discussed their initiatives and proposals regarding the project. 

The Anaklia Deep Sea Port project was launched last year. In June 2017, SSA Marine, a leading US operator, was announced as the future container terminal operator, as well as an investor in the Anaklia Deep Sea Port project. The Anaklia Deep Sea Port Master Plan was put together by Anaklia Development Consortium in 2016 and approved by the Government of Georgia in October 2017, a document in which the ADC worked together with an international company MTBS for a year. 

After Anaklia City JSC was established, the Anaklia City & Special Economic Zone project was launched in June. A memorandum with South Korea’s Incheon Free Economic Zone was signed, and dialogue with over 100 international companies began. At the same time, Anaklia City announced an expression of interest in the development plan, visionary master planning and economic analysis. 

The company is reviewing proposals from more than 30 international consulting consortiums. The study is to commence in late November 2017. 

Other major stages of the Anaklia Deep Sea Port project included marine, engineering, geo-technical, topograpical and other studies to be carried out by leading Dutch company Van Oord. The Anaklia Development Consortium has already completed the majority of feasibility studies; the project Phase 1- preliminary design has been developed and submitted, drawn up together with leading international companies including Moffatt and Nichol, Royal Haskoning DHV and Van Oord. 

The Georgian government has already transferred parts of the Anaklia Port investment area to the Anaklia Development Consortium. An environmental impact assessment of the project was carried out by ADC, through which over 50 studies were made to examine the flora, fauna and marine areas of the Anaklia Deep Sea port and its adjacent territory. Furthermore, public meetings were held in the process of working on this assessment, with up to 20 local and international companies involved, Royal Haskoning DHV and Ecoline International among them. 

As previously announced, the Anaklia Deep Sea Port Land Construction works will officially start on December 20, 2017.

By Nino Gugunishvili