Instead of spreading false claims, the Deputy Minister of Economy should either tell the Georgian public the truth—that no investment is being made there and no Chinese company is entering the project—or step away from a task she clearly cannot handle,” said Tazo Datunashvili, one of the leaders of “Lelo – Strong Georgia,” responding to a statement by Deputy Minister of Economy Tamar Ioseliani regarding the construction of the Anaklia port.

According to Datunashvili, it is a “blatant lie” that intensive work is taking place in Anaklia. He said that together with members of “Lelo” he visited the area, where “three people in workers’ uniforms are walking around,” and in reality no real construction work is being carried out.

“As you know, in recent weeks the Anaklia issue has become very active internationally. In recent days it has also become active in domestic politics, when we went to Anaklia and saw the real situation on the ground—a reality that describes a disastrous and tragic condition created around the Anaklia port by Bidzina Ivanishvili and ‘Georgian Dream.’ Today, propaganda did not hesitate, and the young deputy minister of Ivanishvili’s economy ministry decided to sell Georgian citizens a blatant lie as reality.

Specifically, the deputy minister Ioseliani said that the construction of the Anaklia port and its breakwater has supposedly entered an active phase.

If ‘intensive work’ in Anaklia means the presence of the same workforce needed to renovate a three-room apartment—meaning a few people in helmets and uniforms and one truck—then perhaps we can accept what the deputy minister is saying as reality. But in fact, the reality is what I described: on that territory there are three guards dressed as workers, and when they saw that we from ‘Lelo’ had arrived, the same vehicle was entering and leaving the so-called construction site. If this is what the deputy minister calls massive and intensive work, then she may be convincing herself, but it is a blatant lie that any real construction is taking place.

It was also reported in the media, and as someone who personally visited the site, I can tell you that the area is devastated. Almost all hotels in Anaklia are in a state of decay, the infrastructure is on the verge of collapse, and the port construction site presents a tragic picture. The sand extracted from the deep-water port area—on which tens of millions of lari have already been spent—could practically be filled back in again. No work is being done.

For two years, a Chinese company has held the tender but has not lifted a finger to invest anything in the Anaklia port. At the same time, the Middle Corridor route, which is supposed to pass through Anaklia, is being diverted to southern Georgia via the so-called Trump route through Azerbaijan and Armenia, and every citizen of Georgia is losing a huge opportunity to achieve an economic breakthrough within a generation and become part of the international economic chain.

Therefore, I will repeat once again: instead of spreading lies, the deputy minister should either tell the truth—that no investment is being made and no Chinese company is involved—or step away from this project, which she clearly cannot handle,” Datunashvili said.

For context, Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Tamar Ioseliani stated that mobilization works for the Anaklia deep-water port have been completed and the project is moving into an active construction phase. She said that the government of Georgia is pursuing a correct policy for the development of key infrastructure, which includes the Anaklia deep-water port project, where preparatory mobilization works have been completed.