According to the 2023 state budget, GEL 2.850 million will be provided for the development of the Anaklia Deep Sea Port; the amount exceeds the current year's figure by GEL 1.3 million. Out of the mentioned amount, GEL 151.8 thousand more than last year will be spent on the salaries of 8 employees and it will be GEL 330 thousand. It is written in the explanatory note of the draft budget that next year the Georgian government will promote "the Anaklia Deep Sea Port development project and will monitor new investment agreements".
In addition to the draft state budget, recent statements clarify that the government plans to take steps around the Anaklia project in 2023. On September 12, the government approved the fulfillment stages of the public and private cooperation project under build-operate-transfer (BOT) model of the Black Sea deep-water port in Anaklia. According to the Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili, high-level design works have already been carried out by the authoritative Dutch company MTBS. They updated the previously existing studies taking the new circumstances and the global current processes into account, as well as prepared the research and recommendations of the port sector of Georgia. As the Minister said, the port infrastructure of Anaklia serves the interests of the middle corridor.
The government repeatedly took the initiative to announce a new tender for the Anaklia Port, millions of studies were conducted, and the Ministers actively convinced us of the necessity of the existence of the Anaklia Deep-Water Port Development Agency, however, after several days of promising statements, the issue of the port was being consigned to oblivion again, experts believe that next year will not be an exception in this regard.
It should be noted that on December 24, 2017, the then Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and the founder of the Anaklia Development Consortium, Mamuka Khazaradze, announced the start of the construction of the port in Anaklia in a ceremonial situation. On January 9, 2020, the Government of Georgia terminated the contract with the Anaklia Development Consortium (which was supposed to build the Anaklia Port) due to non-fulfillment of its obligations.
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