Fadi Asli : No one will invest in Anaklia project as long as Bidzina Ivanishvili wants to destroy it
No one will invest in Anaklia project as long as Bidzina Ivanishvili wants to destroy it, - Fadi Asli, Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce in Georgia, said while commenting on the decision of Meridian company not to invest in Anaklia deep sea port project.
He said no one will put one dollar if the government is not really supporting and everyone knows that the government is really not supporting the project.
“The government openly and publicly says that they support the Anaklia port. Bizdina Ivanishvili had done everything in his power to destroy Anaklia port. At the beginning it was the strategy. He instructs the government to speak publicly and to the international community and to investors that they are supporting the project, but at the same time he wants to destroy it. He doesn’t want to be criticized to show that he is destroying it. But no one is stupid. The international community knows, the investors know, the embassies know that he is against the project. Honestly, I would be very surprised to see that the Consortium of Anaklia is completing the project. This is my personal opinion and I hope I am mistaken. But from what I have been following since the beginning of 2019, things don’t look good.”
This is a huge project. It is the major infrastructural project in Georgia,. And the government is the party in this project.
No investor will commit to this project if they don’t have the full support of the government. No one will put one dollar if the government is not really supporting and everyone knows that the government is really not supporting, so, today Meridian, tomorrow -another company… no one will invest in this project as long as Bidzina Ivanishvili wants to destroy it,” Fadi Asli said.
According to him, the port is very important.
“Because will bring much more cargo, it will bring prices down as due to competition with Poti port. So the process will go down. It will create employment. It will increase the economic growth in the country and it will give Georgia the substitute. If there is room for two ports, three ports, four ports, it is better than one port or two ports. It is extremely important for the country. Extremely important politically as it will create jobs for Abkhazians as it is 4 kilometers away and will bring Abkhazians to work there. It will bring Abkhazia and Georgia closer to each other then they are today. It has political implication, social implication and economic implication. Of course Russians are not happy to see it happen. And most probably Mr. Ivanishvili is implementing the interests of Russia, in my opinion as the only party to be harmed by such effort is Russia,” Fadi Asli said.
