TBILISI -- Georgia has announced that a Chinese consortium submitted the sole bid to build a sprawling deep-sea port in Anaklia, ending a multiyear political saga over the megaproject that puts Tbilisi's growing ties with Beijing in the spotlight.
Georgian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili made the announcement at a May 29 press conference, where he said the government had received bids from a Swiss-Luxembourg consortium and a joint offer from China Communications Construction Company Limited and the Singapore-based China Harbour Investment Pte. Ltd.
"The application is complete, the relevant bank guarantees have been presented," Davitashvili said. "In a few days, we will have clarifications, after which the Chinese consortium will be announced as the winner."
He added that China Road and Bridge Corporation and Qingdao Port International Co Ltd will serve as subcontractors to build the port.
After months of consultations with both bidders, Davitashvili said that Tbilisi only received a final proposal from the Chinese consortium, which now looks set to build the country's first deep-sea port.
The announcement brings an end to a controversial political struggle over who would build Georgia's strategically important port, while the winning Chinese bid highlights Tbilisi's burgeoning relationship with China.
A previous attempt to build the port in Anaklia by a consortium formed between Georgia's TBC Bank and U.S.-based Conti International was canceled by the government in 2020 after years of political controversy that saw TBC co-founders Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze facing money-laundering charges.
Following the charges, the American investor pulled out and the project ground to a halt until the government canceled the $2.5 billion port contract. In 2022, a court found Khazaradze and Japaridze guilty of fraud, but they were both released without prison time.
Khazaradze has claimed the authorities were trying to sabotage the project and that the real issue behind the dispute was his personal conflict with Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire former prime minister who leads the Georgian Dream party that has been in power since 2012.
The government announced plans to revive the project in 2022 and opened up a call for bids, saying that Tbilisi planned to hold a 51 percent stake in the port.
Georgia's strategic location on the eastern edge of the Black Sea has made it particularly crucial for the Middle Corridor, a trade route between China and Europe bypassing Russia that has grown in importance and usage since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
SEE ALSO: The Black Sea Port That Could Define Georgia's Geopolitical FutureBut the megaproject has been at the center of geopolitical jostling, with European Union-based and Chinese companies said to have been in the running. Political observers and officials said that Tbilisi's choice of winner for Anaklia would be a bellwether for where the country was leaning in its future political orientation.
"If what is chosen is not in line with the EU -- a club that Georgia wants to join -- then that should help tell us about the direction this government is heading towards,” Asuncion Sanchez Ruiz, deputy head of mission of the EU delegation to Georgia, told RFE/RL in 2023.
Davitashvili's announcement also comes one day after parliament pushed through an override of a presidential veto of a controversial "foreign agent" law that has been criticized by Western governments and faced widespread protests at home.
In recent years, the government has pushed connectivity to the top of Georgia's foreign policy agenda and looked to capitalize on newfound interest in the Middle Corridor.
SEE ALSO: Chinese Highway Project In Georgia Brings Hope, Scandal, And ChangeBut the country has a dearth of high-quality infrastructure, which has so far held back its transit potential, with long lines of trucks at its borders and ports at Batumi and Poti operating near capacity as trade along the route has steadily increased since 2022.
This has led to organizations like the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank warning that without a deep-sea port in Georgia -- which would allow larger ships to transport increased volumes at a more efficient rate -- neither the country nor the Middle Corridor will be competitive as a global trade route.
Georgia has increasingly turned to China for infrastructure projects, with one study by the Tbilisi-based Civic Initiative for Democratic and Euro-Atlantic Choice saying that since 2021, every infrastructure project worth more than $100 million has involved Chinese companies.