China pulls out of Anaklia Port, Georgia to take over development
Georgia has said that China officially exited the Anaklia Deep Sea Port, in favour of direct state development and ‘partnership with several countries’, Economy Minister Mariam Kvrivishvili said. The move was. . .
Georgia has said that China officially exited the Anaklia Deep Sea Port, in favour of direct state development and ‘partnership with several countries’, Economy Minister Mariam Kvrivishvili said. The move was expected by many experts and critics, as rumours of China’s exit had been circulating for months. Kvrivishvili made the announcement on Monday, saying that the government intends to build the port in western Georgia on its own using a ‘landlord model’. According to theminister, the state will retain ownership of the core maritime and port infrastructure through the model. It would manage its development directly, rather than handing the project to a single foreign-led consortium as previously planned. The majority state-owned Chinese state-owned China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) and its Singapore-registered subsidiary China Harbour Investment received 49% of the port’s shares in 2024. Kvrivishvili said the model would allow the state to develop the port in partnership with several countries and companies simultaneously, rather than with one exclusive partner, in order to create better conditions for attracting cargo and international capital. She stressed that shares in the port will not be sold, seeking to head off speculation that the state might cede control over the project. According to the Kvrivishvili, the state will remain the sole owner, while international companies will only be brought in to manage terminal operations — a role she said has no bearing on ownership. The minister also noted the government’s broader transport and logistics strategy: a planned $7 billion investment in the sector by 2032 covering the Anaklia Port, the modernisation of Georgian Railways, and the completion of high-speed highways. She cited a 21% year-on-year rise in cargo turnover in the first four months of 2026, and a cumulative 46% increase over the past four years, presenting Anaklia as central to Georgia’s role in the Middle Corridor linking Europe and Asia. Kvrivishvili also said the project had attracted interest from neighbouring countries, Central Asian states, China, Gulf states, and Western companies, and that Georgia specifically welcomed investment from Middle Corridor countries — China, the Central Asian states, and Azerbaijan. Following the announcement, Georgian TVPirvelireported that Asian countries, including Azerbaijan, rather than Western partners, will be involved in the investments in the port, with the first operations launching in 2029. The government did not mention in Monday’s announcement any reference to the Chinese-Singaporean consortium that had been awarded the Anaklia tender in 2025 — a silence that all but confirms what had been rumoured for months. As early as November 2025, rumours began circulating that China had quietly withdrawn from the Anaklia deal. Despite repeated attempts byOC Mediato obtain confirmation from officials at the time, including Chinese officials, the reports were never verified, and the government continued to insist that construction was proceeding as planned. The Anaklia Port is the successor to Lazika, a Black Sea city envisioned after the Rose Revolution of 2004 as both a modern urban hub and a political gesture toward estranged Abkhazians. Lazika never materialised, and Anaklia — conceived as a strategic gateway between Europe and China — has since survived the fall of former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s government, a democratic transfer of power, and years of political infighting. The ruling Georgian Dream party’s founder Bidzina Ivanishvili has long been sceptical of the project, repeatedly discouraging successive governments from investing heavily in it, even as various prime ministers tried to revive it. The Anaklia Development Consortium won the original contract in 2016, but the government cancelled the deal in 2020. The consortium, led by businesspeople-turned-politicians Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze, pursued arbitration at the World Bank’s ICSID in Washington and lost in early 2026. The government said the ruling fully vindicated its position and placed responsibility for the project’s failure entirely on the consortium's founders. The resignation of Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili in 2018 was reportedly linked in part to disagreements with Ivanishvili over Anaklia, and his successor, Irakli Gharibashvili, also failed to move the project forward. More recently, the government relaunched a tender inviting bids from major international port builders, including Boskalis, DEME, Jan De Nul, and Van Oord. After a 45-day process, the tender was awarded to CCCC and China Harbour Investment, triggering fresh controversy. Then-Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili said the first investment phase would total $600 million, with the state retaining a 51% stake and the consortium holding 49%. Transparency International has documented CCCC’s troubled record. The World Bank barred the company from its projects for eight years beginning in 2009 over corruption in the Philippines. The company was also embroiled in corruption controversies in Equatorial Guinea. A CCCC-built technology centre in Ecuador was found to be largely structurally defective within a few years of opening, and CCCC-linked entities were later banned or suspended over corruption in Bangladesh and Malaysia. CCCC has also been subject to US Treasury sanctions since 2021 over ties to China’s military-industrial complex, limiting its access to US technology and requiring export licences for certain transactions. The US Embassy in Tbilisi and the US State Department repeatedly criticised CCCC’s international track record and warned Georgia to safeguard its sovereignty and Euro-Atlantic alignment. Bringing a sanctioned Chinese state-owned company into the Anaklia project, alongside Georgia’s adoption of repressive legislation, fuelled concerns that Tbilisi was drifting away from its Western partners. In June, the US Embassy in Georgiasaidthe US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) had signed a second loan agreement worth $25 million with PACE Group to support the expansion of the new seaport in Poti. Economist and former National Bank governor Roman Gotsiridze had already voiced doubts about the deal’s viability. Speaking toOC Media, he argued that building a port is the easy part — the real challenge lies in operating and maintaining it over the long term. Gotsiridze now says the Anaklia project is effectively dead because of the government’s handling of it, calling the outcome a betrayal of the Georgian public.