Georgia’s Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure Maia Tskitishvili has said that “the order regarding the Poti Deep Sea port has been cancelled and this topic is closed at this stage”.

According to her, it is natural that “in parallel to the construction of Anaklia deep sea port, Poti port thinks about enlargement”.

“Poti port existed until the Georgian government announced the expression of interest regarding Anaklia deep sea port, thus the existence of Poti port should not be a surprise to anyone, including for the Anaklia Development Consortium and investors. As for the future plans of Poti port for enlargement, Poti port made a number of statements about it, unfortunately, these plans remain as plans during this period.  The specific order, which was not the permit, but the terms of land use, was issued incorrectly, without agreement with the government. Accordingly, at this stage this topic is closed, the order regarding the Poti port has been cancelled and other statements made by Poti port are yet announcements about their wishes”, Tskitishvili said.

On May 29  it became known that apart from the Anaklia Deep Sea Port, another deep–water port might be built in Poti. In particular, APM Terminals Poti said that on May 2 the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia issued permission for the construction of a new multifunctional, deep-water port in Poti.  

On May 30 the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, Natia Turnava said that a preliminary permit issued to a deep-water port in Poti is abolished. 

“First of all, I would like to say that the document, which was issued, is not a construction permit; it is a so-called preliminary use document of a land use, which   was issued by one of our agencies, in particular, by the order of the head of the Agency for Construction and Technical Supervision, but this issue has not been agreed with any member of the government, including me,” Turnava said at a briefing on May 30. 

“In addition, as it turned out, that there are procedural violations on the basis of which this document was issued; therefore, today we have made a decision and this document has been cancelled. And the head of the agency has been dismissed”, Turnava said.

On June 7 Director General of APM Terminals Poti,  Klaus Lawrence told the Interpressnews,  he had meetings with several ministers and representatives of the ministries regarding his future plans. As he stated, he “expects restoration of the right granted by the order.”