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Djibouti commissions $3.5 billion Chinese-built free trade zone

Djibouti commissioned a $3.5 billion, Chinese-built free trade zone on Thursday, deepening ties with the Asian giant and helping the Horn of Africa nation generate more jobs for its youths. Djibouti, with a population of 876,000,

Djibouti commissioned a $3.5 billion, Chinese-built free trade zone on Thursday, deepening ties with the Asian giant and helping the Horn of Africa nation generate more jobs for its youths.

Djibouti, with a population of 876,000, already hosts Chinese, U.S. and French naval bases and it also handles roughly 95 percent of the goods imported by Ethiopia, its land-locked neighbour with 99 million people.

The new trade zone, one of several new port and trade facilities being developed by Djibouti, covers 48 square kms and was built by China’s Dalian Port Corporation.

The zone will be jointly operated by Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority and China’s Merchants Holdings company.

Zone to facilitate job creation

The zone which will house manufacturing and warehouse facilities, an export-processing area and a services centre, is expected to handle trade worth $7 billion within two years, and create 15,000 jobs when complete.

“It is … a zone of hope for thousands of young jobseekers,” Djibouti President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh said at the inauguration ceremony, which was also attended by the presidents of Rwanda, Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan.

China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ project

The agreement to build the free trade zone was signed in March 2016 as part of China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, which is a bid to expand trade routes with a series of infrastructure initiatives stretching across 60 countries.

“Our strategic location and world-class facilities have … seen Djibouti’s importance as a trade hub recognised globally,” Aboubakar Omar Hadi, chairman of the Djibouti Ports and Free Trade zone, told Reuters at the ceremony.

Djibouti already handles most imports for neighbouring Ethiopia, and aspires to become a gateway to South Sudan, Somalia and the Great Lakes region.

Source: African News

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18 COMMENTS
  • Grar July 6, 2018

    If Issaias and Eritrea wants to survive economically and politically in the Horn of African port and maritime logistics business, he needs to act fast, by opening the business to Ethiopia a la pre 1998 way and cut prices by half to kill Djibouti, otherwise the Chinese and the French will out compete him. Money and business determines, Eritrea’s future position on the Horn of Africa.
    The million dollar question is that are Issaias and the Hgdefites learning from their past failures or will they wake up and act fast? The Arabs and Sudan have no need or use for Eritrean ports, except to bomb other poor Arab Muslims in Yemen using their slaves from Sudan, Mauritania and Chad for few years.

    • Sol July 7, 2018

      Gear, The dictator of Eritrea is equally like Sudan slave of UAE and KSA.

  • rezen July 6, 2018

    “Djibouti commissioned a $3.5 billion, Chinese-built free trade zone on Thursday, deepening ties with the Asian giant and helping the Horn of Africa nation generate more jobs for its youths.”

    FIRST and FOREMOST, The “Asian giant” is NOT there for the benefit of the less than 700,000 people of tiny Djibouti. — just a little bit over the population of Asmara. In any case, China’s goal– let us be bold –is for its geopolitical and economic interest. — NEVER, NEVER for the down trodden ordinary people. Yes, a few local indigenous charlatans benefit a good some of money for their role as enablers.
    In the grand scale, AFRICA is destined to be the “play” ground of ambitious nations, East or West, who are etched with a demeaning negative attitude towards the BLACK RACE. As long as Africa is saddled with this negative perception, Africans will always remain at the bottom of Human RACE. . PERIOD!

    • Degoli July 7, 2018

      Don’t blame others before you blame yourself. If you do not respect yourself, your own languages, history, identity, grandparents, brothers and sisters while you worship the identity and history of the Wahabi Arab across the sea, don’t expect anybody including the Arab or other nations to even see you
      as a human being.

    • Hade July 7, 2018

      And who is to blame for that if not the african? If you are eritrean, you fought a war for 30 years to liberate yourself and then not even 10 years, you destroyed everything you worked for. So why should a westerner or asian have any respect for you?

  • Grar July 7, 2018

    Tigreyans and their Wayane are loses. After looting Ethiopia for 27 years they are back to Mekele.
    Then you have the Abyssinian Nazi, the so-called Agazi who hate Amhara and Ethiopian Muslims. Behind this movement there is Weyane.

  • Deglel July 7, 2018

    The wicked ghedli generation is rather famous for unashamedly believing that it is Ethiopia that needed Eritrea, and not that both needed each other. The over emphasis on “wedebatna” our ports”, out of all other national “treasures”, to show the coherence of the demand for independence comes from having totally failed to grasp the nature of the real world. All that the Eritreans especially the wicked ghedli generation could see from the logic of “wedebatna” our ports was that Ethiopia would remain dependent on them. And when this fake belief becomes a state of mind, one can easily detect its colonial (fascist Italian) nature. In short, all the fake fights and sacrifices to no meaningful improvement of life for the ordinary Eritrean people. Time to give lots of credit and admiration to the people and government of Djibouti for being a very wise and business minded intelligent African neighbors. Eritrea’s losses Djibouti’s gains.

    • Ermiyas July 7, 2018

      Indeed brother/sister Deglel,
      Poor, corrupted and backward Eritrea would take another 30 years {like its so-called shit independence} to match to Djibouti’s high standard and facilities of port services.
      The bastard Arabs have to come to corrupted/backward Eritrea’s rescue and modernize its run down filthy ports of Massawa and Assab. The great late Meles Zenawi was absolutely right when he said the Eritrean ports would remain to be filthy camels swimming pool and toilets.

    • Uncle Sye July 7, 2018

      Deglel ,
      If I did n’t know any better , I would have thought I was the author of your comment ,you are so brilliant ,you remind me of me ! The evil gedli brainwashed with colonial mentaliry was fake ,fake martyrdom that took away our brothers & sisters..to some fathers & mothers & look now Eritrea is back to suckong Habesha’s d##k !

      • Sol July 7, 2018

        Tekhlay, are you forgetting the multi names you are using or the hate mongering comments????

        • Ermiyas July 8, 2018

          Abdurobo savage evil Arab slave dog, the ROOTLESS CANCEROUS Muslim garbage and the Saho’s headless whore snake shit, ROT in your Islam shit HELL.

  • Uncle Sye July 7, 2018

    ድሓን ጅቡትየ ሕጅስ ኣይኣይንቐንእን ኢና..ባባ ኢሳያስ ብወጻኢ ሚኒስተር ዑስማን ጌሩ ምስ ኢትዮጵያ ክልተ ህዝቢ ዘይኮንናስ ሓደ ህዝብ ምኽዋንና ,ኣብይ ምቕሉል መራሒና ምዃኑን ዶብ ትርጉም ከም ዘይብሉን ..ገሊጹልና…ዓሰብ ኣዕቢና ከም ንህብትም ተራጋጊጹልና ኢዩ..እታ ሓንቲ ጸገም ናይ 30 ዓመት ሽፍትነት ትርጉም ስኢኑ.. ግብጺ ከሲራ

    • Ermiyas July 7, 2018

      Uncle Sye,
      What a brilliant and beautiful sense of humor.
      Please keep it up and God bless you with more wisdom and talents.
      I love your last line of “nay 30 Amet shiftinet/banditry tirgum sienu”, indeed, indeed, indeed.

      • Uncle Sye July 8, 2018

        Dearest Ermias ,
        It is not me , it is the situation itself with a dark sense of humor. But ,thanx for extending me the credit.
        Stay brilliant

  • k.tewolde July 7, 2018

    Djibouti as one of the tiniest nation which is doing what it got to do with the size, small population and geographical position it has,it is dealing with the big players to benefit its own people,it is moving on.Can we do that,instead of getting on each others throat,spreading hate,division and ridiculing and discrediting one anothers legacy,instead of talking trash,desecrating the dead and exhuming their remains for dinner. Ermiyas, uncle Sye,Grar,Deglel….it is cryptic,not appetizing,you have to get out of your necrophiliac state of mind,otherwise what ever ports we have and our strategic corridors will continue to assume their Gothic and haunted look like the last 27 years because of people of your type.

    • Ermiyas July 8, 2018

      Wedi Amate Komarit the most mushmush garbage dikala asshole ELF mendef’s whore mouth, why don’t you just ROT in your freaking diKala evil Islamic HELL where you fucking belong.

  • Asmerom July 8, 2018

    The tiny country of Djibouti opening up and owning a modern
    International free trade zone or port while the rigid country of Eritrea
    opens new prisons and prostitution and begging zones for its people.
    Sick Eritrea and Eritreans should be buried in shames and in disgraces.

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