Anaklia, Georgia (Ports Europe) May 30, 2024 – A consortium of majority state-owned China Communication and Construction Company (CCCC) Ltd., one of the largest construction companies in the world, and its subsidiary China Harbour, has been given the project for the construction of Georgia’s first deep-water port in Anaklia on the Black Sea. It was the sole bidder. China Road and Bridge Corporation and Qingdao Port International will serve as subcontractors for the port’s construction.
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The Anaklia port saw years of political wrangling and controversies. These included the elimination of the U.S.-based Conti International from the project in 2020. The increasing pro-Russian government in Tbilisi also discouraged European Union companies from entering it the project.
Moscow hated the idea of a deep-sea port 500 km from its largest port (and Black Sea navy base) in Novorossiysk controlled by a U.S. or European company. Being currently a vassal state to China, following the Western sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has no choice but to accept China’s control of Anaklia.
Update: Russian Navy base next door to Georgia’s future Anaklia port
Anaklia
Anaklia Deep Sea Port was to have been the first Georgian deep-water container port with state-of-the-art infrastructure and equipment. In January 2020, the Anaklia port project was cancelled by Georgia’s government, which claimed that the owners, Anaklia Development Consortium, had not met the terms and conditions of the contract. The issue is embroiled in international, political and business interests.
Ports Europe has an extensive archive on the developments related to Anaklia deep sea port
The prominent Georgian journalist and blogger Tengis Ablotia said: “Everyone should understand: the Great Silk Road, the port of Anaklia, the Baku-Kars railway route – all this is primarily for China. All this gigantic infrastructure is a useless waste of time and money without cargo traffic from China.
If you want to have a port in Anaklia, then you must involve the Chinese in this project. Western investors will not dare to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the construction of a port from scratch.
There is too much uncertainty, too many questions, and who knows, maybe tomorrow the Zangezur corridor opens between Azerbaijan and Turkey through Armenia, which will dramatically change the logistics map of the region. What will happen to our investments then?
There is only one country that can build the port of Anaklia, give a new breath to the Georgian economy and not put forward any political demands. This should be a country in which private business has guarantees from the state in strategic projects, the profit from which is too long-term. There is only one such country – China”.
Anaklia port saga (3): International consultants and ongoing arbitration
CCCC
CCCC is a majority state-owned, publicly traded, multinational engineering and construction company involved in the design, construction and operation of infrastructure – highways, bridges, tunnels, railways (especially high-speed rail), subways, airports, oil platforms, and marine ports. CCCC has been a contractor for numerous Belt and Road Initiative projects
Since the mid-2000s, CCCC has been implicated in misconduct, including fraud and corruption, in Bangladesh, Equatorial Guinea, Malaysia, and the Philippines. This led to debarment by the World Bank.
In August 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce placed several CCCC subsidiaries on the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List for their construction work to militarize artificial islands in the South China Sea. The same month, the U.S. Department of Defense released the names of additional “Communist Chinese military companies” operating directly or indirectly in the United States. CCCC was included on the list.
In November 2020, then-president Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting any American company or individuals from owning shares in companies, including CCCC, that the U.S. Department of Defense has listed as having links to the People’s Liberation Army. In December 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce added CCCC itself to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List.
Update with more details to follow
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