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Op-Ed: “Anaklia Deep-Sea Port — too Important for Georgia and the West to Lose”

Paata Gaprindashvili, Mariam Tsitsikashvili (GRASS)

The Anaklia deep-sea port, generally and rightly acknowl­edged as an essential project for Georgia’s long term security and economic devel­opment, was launched in 2016, with the Georgian-American Anaklia Devel­opment Consortium starting construction works in December 2017. However, as 2020 approaches, domestic political struggles are putting at risk the effort to provide Georgia’s first deep-sea port, and thus endan­gering a possible alter­native trade route between Asia and Europe.

Anaklia port and its economic and geopo­litical importance

Georgia’s ambition to construct one of the largest ports on the Black Sea, with state-of-the-art deep-water infra­structure, repre­sents a real oppor­tunity for the country to cement its position as a major regional hub and mark its strategic location along the new Silk Road. By 2025, even in the most pessimistic forecasts, the Anaklia port is expected to attract 600,000 TEUs of cargo (one TEU is equiv­alent to one regular container) and will accom­modate 10,000 TEU ships. These are the largest ships that pass through the Bosphorus, those which existing ports in Georgia (Poti and Batumi) are unable to berth. For Georgians, the port in Anaklia could finally change the damaging perception that Georgia is merely a part of Russia’s “neigh­bourhood”, while for the Europeans, the new port on Georgia’s Black Sea coast would provide an alter­native corridor for the east-west land trade that currently flows through Russia.

Domestic struggles and contra­dictory signals from the government

Although the ground-breaking ceremony for the project has already been held, it is now mired in contro­versy. As well as its opponent abroad, Russia, the port also appar­ently has its domestic adver­saries. Those whose business interests are connected to the Poti port (situated 70 km away from Anaklia) fear losing their economic benefits and are therefore trying to torpedo the Anaklia project, for example by pushing the government to develop deep sea infra­structure in Poti. This looks odd, to say the least, as it was the government’s feasi­bility research that identified Anaklia in the first place as the best place to construct a deep-sea port on Georgia’s coastline.

What’s more, the Anaklia Devel­opment Consortium, which won the government tender, has unexpectedly become the object of the government’s questionable scrutiny. This began with the revela­tions that allegedly incrim­inate consortium founder Mamuka Khazaradze for money laundering in his capacity as a chairman of one of the largest banks, TBC Bank, and then continued with state­ments by top government officials about the commit­ments that the consortium is allegedly not fulfilling.

It seems that the government does not have a unified position on the project. While nobody has dared to publicly call the project into question, and the author­ities including Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze have formally committed themselves to the construction of the port, recent devel­op­ments have shown politi­cians having second thoughts. For instance, after his resig­nation, the former minister of economy openly questioned the economic potential of the Anaklia port, even though it was his ruling party that acknowl­edged the special economic status of Anaklia in the Georgian Constitution.

After months of uncer­tainty regarding the eight condi­tions that the donor banks — (European Bank for Recon­struction and Devel­opment (EBRD), Overseas Private Investment Corpo­ration (OPIC), Asian Devel­opment Bank (ADB) and the Asian Infra­structure Investment Bank (AIIB)) requested from the government before investing $400m in the project, in May 2019 the government and the investor banks agreed on seven out of eight condi­tions. When it seemed that the last point — commercial risk insurance — was the only remaining issue, the negoti­ation process was endan­gered by the government’s unexpected decision to grant a deep-sea port devel­opment license to Poti port. Although the Ministry of Economy annulled this decision, the incon­sistent moves unsettled those involved in the project and damaged the image of the government.

There is reasonable suspicion that this contro­versy regarding the project is related to the personal clash between Bidzina Ivanishvili, the chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, and consortium founder Khazaradze. Strik­ingly, queries about Khazaradze came out following Ivanishvili’s complaint about Khazaradze’s failure to appre­ciate him. After months of silence, Ivanishvili made his first comment about the Anaklia project in April 2019, stating that he had always been sceptical of having a private company construct such a complex project. It seems that Ivanishvili’s concerns about Khazaradze impeded the government from fully supporting the project. Some might see the influence of the Kremlin behind Ivanishvili’s actions. Irrespective of what has prevented Ivanishvili from fully supporting the project, putting the project in jeopardy is certainly in line with the Kremlin’s interests.

Time for the project supporters to come out

The ball is in the government’s court; it must break this deadlock and convince inter­na­tional investors of its deep commitment to the project. US State Secretary Mike Pompeo has urged Georgian author­ities to complete the port project in order to prevent the country from falling prey to Russian or Chinese economic influence. Going back to the negoti­ation table and finding a compromise on the commercial risk insurance would be one good option to get out of the current situation. The EU also has a role to play. Having already acknowl­edged the port’s strategic impor­tance, Europe should now exert its influence on Ivanishvili to ensure the project is not derailed by his and his close circle’s opaque interests.

The opinions expressed in this publi­cation are those of the author(s) and do not neces­sarily reflect the opinions or views of IEP