Georgian Ports: Plot Still Hot

20 Июн

Scarcely ever have the scandal calmed down with issuance and withdrawal a construction permit for a deep-water terminal in Poti while Government focuses primarily on Anaklia port development, that more news came displaying the intrigue is still on, as Anaklia situation is far from cloudless and Poti main stakeholder APM has not given up.

Poti deep sea berth is to start operating in late 2020

A Georgian company Pace supported by the USA has signed in late May the agreement with Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) in Washington on investing 50M USD for the terminal in Poti.

As per Pace Director General Irakliy Tateishvili, the project’s total cost amounts to $120M, of which $93M for the first phase, so the deep sea berth is going to begin working in the end of 2020. The project is already agreed upon by Ministry of Economy, and the tender is on now to identify the developer, estimated to pass till July.

The new terminal will enable to attract about 3M t of cargoes, firstly chemical products from Azerbaijan and Central Asia countries, which is going to grant Georgia additional 60-70M USD per annum.

“The reason the terminal is being constructed is the cargoes the operating ports of Poti and Batumi cannot service any more. Our complex will be furnished with the up-to-day equipment and capable of handling chemical industry cargoes manufactured at the plants being now built in Azerbaijan and Central Asia”, declared DG.

Minister of Economy: State waived $11M to Anaklia Consortium

The state relieved Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC) of 11M USD it should have levied as the penalty for breech of investment obligations – that was announced by Georgian Minister of Economy Natia Turnava in the course of her address to members of Parliament Committee of Sectoral Economy.

In particular, the matter was that ADC failed to submit in time its financial report for which a penalty should have been imposed, yet the Ministry decided to abstain from the punishment taking into account difficulty and importance of the Anaklia port project.

“As we all know, ADC had obligations to complete certain works back by summer 2017, and in compliance with those the company was to present the funding involvement report. It was in summer 2017 and two years have passed since, but the obligation is not met so far. We heeded investors’ appeals several times and shifted the terms. Now we are still considering the funding issue which must have been solved back in summer 2017.

For the terms violation we should have penaltied ADC for $11M however we did not do it inasmuch as the principal matter for us in not a fine nor its amount but the port construction project implementation”, stated Minister.

Ministry hopes on understanding of APM Terminals

“I really hope we won’t have to communicate through the court with one of our most important investors. On the contrary, we should closely cooperate”, declared Georgian Minister of Economy Natia Turnava commenting upon the information that APM intended to sue the country’s Government.

The claim’s motive might be the permit to erect a deep-water port in Poti endorsed by Ministry of Economy and then, literally next morning, withdrawn because of the negative response by Anaklia Development Consortium.

According to her, Poti port is a functioning object requiring maximum support on the part of the state and this support is always granted. If the APM Terminals management submits for the Ministry’s consideration a particular business plan, it will for sure be comtemplated.

https://commersant.ge/ru/post/potiyskiy-glubokovodniy-prichal-nachnet-rabotat-v-konce-2020-goda
https://commersant.ge/ru/post/ministr-ekonomiki-gosudarstvo-prostila-konsorciumu-anakliia-11-mln-dollarov
https://commersant.ge/ru/post/minekonomiki-nadeetsia-na-ponimanie-so-storoni-ay-pi-em-terminals