Anaklia Port Terminal Operator VP on his Business Trip to Georgia

Interview

One of the largest operators in the world, the SSA Marine operates on more than 250 strategic terminals and serves 27.2 million containers annually on five continents. The modern, innovative development of its design, operation and projects are motivators by which company has established itself in the world. SSA marine was chosen and appointed as a container terminal operator for the Anaklia port due to its significant experience as one of the largest terminal operators in the world. The agreement provides SSA Marine with operating rights to the port’s container terminal for the next 20 years.

Bob Watters, Vice President of Port Terminal Operator SSA Marine, visited Georgia to discuss matters related to the construction of the Anaklia port. Representative of the SSA Marine held negotiations with representatives of government agencies and "Anaklia Development Consortium". Watters held meetings with the Consortium members, the Minister of Infrastructure Zurab Alavidze and the representatives of the Ministry. The technical and legal issues of construction, operation of Anaklia Deep Sea Port and future cooperation plans were discussed at the meeting.

Vice President Bob Watters shortly answered some questions related to Anaklia Port and its future development.

How would you describe your visit in Georgia and what was the main purpose of it?

We are continually to work with on behalf of ADC with the government, to work out some details about the project and also to work on the engineering for the designing of the facility.

What is SSA marine’s contribution to this project?

We are both equally participants as well as we are terminal operators for the facility. Furthermore we are strategic investors. Here we operate and we see very good commercial opportunities. Within the SSA Marine Operation, it will be responsible for the full cycle of transportation-carrying out of the customs duty starting from the entry of the vessel. After we did our analysis, we saw that there is a very strong market and for us it is very appealing for business growth as well as for drawing foreign direct investment. This project is very ambitious because of its scale: nine different phases over time. The goal is to grow from 8 million TEU unit to 100 million twenty-foot equivalent unit and in my opinion this is very enthusiastic and progressive in a long run. I think this can be achieved over the time-frame that it’s looking at. But eventually the growth we are talking about is very tense.

What is your general opinion about SEZ and how do you see its development?

I think special economic zones are critical to a project like this. I think the opportunity that we have here in Georgia with free trading reliance with both China and the EU is an ideal situation for SEZ and what that will do is generate more volume for the port, greater economy and more jobs for Georgia. It is really a critical element in making the whole project successful for enhancing the entire corridor. By which I mean new maritime corridor between China and Europe and this will be a great contribution to national economic growth.

Bob Watters also held negotiations with the "Anaklia Development Consortium" in relation to the professions that will be prompted immediately after the launch of the port. The qualification training of Particularly local population of Samegrelo in demanding professions is planned within the framework of the Training Center "Anaklia Development Consortium".

Nia Pataraia