Construction of deep-sea port in Anaklia is to begin in October 2023
Georgia welcomes the prospect of increasing the volume of energy resources transported from the Republic of Kazakhstan through the transport infrastructure and ports on the Black Sea, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili said after the meeting with Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov. The transcript is published on the website of Georgian Government.
“We will be cooperating in a more active manner with our friends towards this end,” added Irakli Garibashvili.
He also said that Georgia invests in modernization of railways on the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (Middle Corridor), which will double the throughput of the railway. “We also have other significant projects planned towards this end. We are working on the construction of a new port as well. I personally informed the Prime Minister that the Government of Georgia intends to build a new, deep-sea port in Anaklia. Works will be launched this year – in October – around this autumn. The Government of Georgia will own the majority package of 51%, while the remaining 49% will be subject to major negotiations,” he said.
According to the Prime Minister of Georgia, trade volumes increased significantly last year and the year-on-year increase has reached 136%. “This trend has been maintained this year as well. I wish to note that trade volumes in January-April of 2023 already reached 188 MLN USD, which constitutes a 283% increase compared to the respective period of the previous year,” he added.
According to Alikhan Smailov, the Middle Corridor throughput increased by 2 times, transportation of containers increased by 30%. The volume of cargo transportation in this direction is planned to be raised to 10 million tons in the medium term. To reach this goal, the parties of the project are successfully implementing a joint roadmap for the development of the corridor for 2022-2027 and the synchronous elimination of bottlenecks.
It should be noted that Tengiz (Kazakhstan) – Novorossiysk (Russia) pipeline transports over two-thirds of all Kazakhstan export crude. After an incident at CPC Marine Terminal in March 2022, the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan announced the search of alternative routes for oil exports. In pursuance of the instructions to diversify export directions, a draft roadmap was developed in December 2022. “The focus will be on the development of the Transcaspian international transport route in the direction of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey ports as well as on export directions to China and Iran,” said Bolat Akchulakov Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan.