Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili explains with what financial resources the state plans to participate in the construction process of Anaklia port.

As Levan Davitashvili said in an interview with IPN, the state has the mentioned resources, both in terms of state enterprises that can participate in the co-financing of similar projects, and the use of pension fund savings is also being considered.

"The work on the Anaklia port project was going on for several months. We have been working with partner consulting companies, we have selected two consulting companies from the UK and the Netherlands to work out the terms of expression of interest and at this stage, they have been processed. The Prime Minister has already announced that the project will be implemented in the near future, and the Ministry was preparing for this, a special working group was working with consulting companies. Also, it worked on certain changes that needed to be included in the legislation of Georgia on public-private cooperation in order for it to be adequate and usable for the implementation of the project. Already in January-February, we will start selecting potential partner investors as a result of expression of interest. As the Prime Minister announced, the role of the state will be leading in the implementation of this project. I think that this will be an absolutely correct and responsible decision of the government. The funds of the project will be specified in the next stages. There are different stages in the development of Anaklia port, about three separate stages. For the first phase, we think it could cost $300 million.

As for the sources of financing, we think that the state has the resources for this. Including in terms of state enterprises that can participate in the co-financing of similar projects. We think that they have a healthy, good financial position to attract financial resources, both from international financial organizations, and we have internal resources that we can use. In our long-term strategic projects, we think that we will use long-term savings, which can come from the same pension fund, and in combination, we will be able to mobilize these funds without any problems. We have evaluated this too. It is possible to use the money from the pension fund, this is exactly the goal, this fund also plays this role in the economy. There is a source of long-term financing that should be directed to the creation of long-term strategic projects. You know that with the recent changes, we allow the pension fund to make such type of investments. I think that during 2023, we should move to the stage of construction works. Throughout the year, negotiations with potential partners and investors were ongoing, and there are many interested parties," said Davitashvili.

source: IPN