One of China’s largest infrastructure companies, China Railway International Group Ltd. (CRIG), is interested in investing in Anaklia Deep Sea Port project, which is being developed in Georgia on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, informs Georgia’s official news agency Agenda.ge.
During its visit to this Caucasian country last week, the delegation from CRIG, a professional overseas contractor for China Railway Group Ltd., showed interest in being actively involved in the implementation of the Anaklia Port project in terms of investment and construction. The Chinese delegation discussed with Georgia’s Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili future cooperation perspectives.
Earlier, another Chinese corporation – the world-famous port equipment manufacturer ZPMC – was reported to have signed a long-term partnership agreement with Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC), a company responsible for constructing the Anaklia Deep Sea Port. Under this agreement, ZPMC is to invest USD 50 mln in the port’s construction and attract additional investments from Chinese financial institutions. It will also provide some of its products such as large-scale container machinery and a bulk cargo handling equipment.
As we wrote earlier, Anaklia is Georgia’s new ambitious project of the country’s first deep sea port with an estimated investment of USD 2.5 bln. The multi-purpose 100 mln tons port is to be built in 9 phases, with USD 586 mln already allocated by ADC for Phase I, when a container terminal and a rail yard will be constructed. The constructing works on Phase I kicked off in December 2017, its operational launch is scheduled for 2021.
The project draws interest of international companies. Thus, in June 2017 SSA Marine, the US port operating company, was announced as the terminal operator for the Anaklia port. The maritime engineering company Van Oord will conduct pre-construction works on the project.
Besides, Italian Spea Engineering S.p.A. submitted a tender bid, expressing its readiness to prepare a detailed project for building a railway infrastructure and road to Anaklia seaport. If the company wins the tender, it will be obliged to introduce a design for building a motorway, railroad and other infrastructure in the next 13 months.