A Chinese-Singaporean consortium has won a contract to build a container port at Anaklia on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, Georgian media on Wednesday cited Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili as saying.

Of the two bidders, the consortium and a Swiss-Luxembourg company that passed the last stage of competition in September, only the consortium submitted a proposal before the deadline, the local news website Civil.ge cited Davitashvili as saying.

The Georgian government itself will invest in the port and own 51% of shares, while the consortium will own the rest. Georgia has said it plans to start construction work in June.

The consortium consists of state-owned Chinese construction giant China Communications Construction Co Ltd and Singapore’s China Harbour Investment.

Original plans for the $2.5 billion deep-sea port envisaged an annual capacity of 14 million tonnes of cargo by 2030.

The port, likely to be used for trade to and from Central Asia and China, began in 2017 with the participation of American company Conti International LLC, but was stopped by the Georgian government.

Chinese companies are already involved in building roads and railways throughout Georgia.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Kevin Liffey)