According to the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Levan Davitashvili, during his visit to the US, he discussed, among other things, the Anaklia Port project.

As he told journalists after the government session, the deadline for submitting proposals for investors expired in April, and the ministry will process these proposals within the next month and, as a result, will identify the winner.

According to him, the Chinese factor in the issue is a subject of speculation.

"The winner has not been identified. We already had the last deadline at the end of April, we received updated proposals, we will probably need a month to process these proposals and assess them. [During the visit to the US] we talked everywhere about the Anaklia port. The Anaklia port is not a separate topic, it is part of the Middle Corridor and the transport connecting infrastructure. Cooperation in the transport and logistics sector is one of the important and interesting focuses in the relations of our two countries. Therefore, Anaklia is part of this context and nothing else. The Chinese factor is also a subject of speculation. This is a project implemented by the Georgian state. It is always communicated about this. It is very disappointing and I had a conversation with my colleagues in America. I expressed disappointment that there is no communication with correct information and the public is being misled, because we are developing this project with the majority share of the state. The Georgian state views this as critical infrastructure and state interests are guaranteed here. This project is very important for us, and speculation is harmful to the project. We may have a private partner who may have a 49% share. The port will be operational very quickly, will fully fulfill the function of an important infrastructure, and it is also important for us to know how to arrange future development. The ministry has very good proposals for this. We are ready for all alternatives. Depending on what the proposal will be, we will have a partner,” said Levan Davitashvili.