Djibouti Seeks to be East Africa's First Port

Posted 28 November 2006 @ 11:43 am EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

DJIBOUTI (AP) - The tiny but strategic Red Sea state of Djibouti is working all out to become the Horn of Africa's main regional shipping terminal over the next few years. The expansion of Doraleh port, about 10 kilometres (six miles) south of the capital, entails construction of a two-kilometre container jetty for deep-water anchorage, allowing an additional 1.5 million offloads a year, officials say.

Located at the southern end of the Red Sea on the Gulf of Aden, Djibouti, a former French colony, is a key staging post between the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal shipping route through to the Indian Ocean. It is also home to the largest overseas French military base and the only US military base in Africa.

The port, with four container terminals and 10 cranes, currently has the capacity to handle 10 million tonnes of general cargo and 400,000 container units per year and the upgrade will mean a significant boost in cargo traffic for the impoverished nation, officials say.

In 2000 the government went into partnership with Dubai's DP World, one of the world's largest container port operators. DP World says the new port will be operational at the end of 2008.

The Dubai government-controlled DP World became one of the world's top three container port operators after its 6.9-billion-dollar acquisition of Britain's Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co earlier this year.

The construction for 400 million dollars (312 million euros) of the new container terminal in Doraleh was launched officially last weekend, and with its extra offloads should knock Mombasa in Kenya off its perch.

The first phase of the upgrade, a 130-million-dollar (101-million-euro) oil terminal was launched in February, with a capacity of 370,000 m3 and 200 lorries a day.

The expansion is expected to improve access to the region, especially Africa's main trading bloc, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), which counts 21 countries and 400 million inhabitants. "Djibouti is the main entry point for COMESA," said its secretary general, Festus Mwencha.

"In 10 or 15 years we hope that we will be able to go from Djibouti right to the Democratic Republic of Congo, we have plans for access, notably rail," he said.

The plans have also been welcomed in a desert country of around 800,000 inhabitants that does not have any natural resources.

"The port of Doraleh will allow Djibouti to have a new clientele: very big ships coming directly from Europe or Asia," carrying 10,000 to 12,000 containers," Thierry Marill, the Djibouti-based Secretary General of the Marill Establishments said.

"Raw materials can get to Djibouti, which will allow processing businesses to play their role, create jobs and which means in the medium term more industries," he said.

On top of the development of the port a duty-free zone is being set up, which should open the way for setting up new companies.

"Our ambition is to promote Djibouti as the gateway for investors to Africa and of exit for African producers towards other continents' markets," said Zeinab Kamil Ali, who manages the port authority and Djibouti'as duty free zone.