February 15, 2000
Ghion Hagos
PANA Correspondent
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PANA) - The shipment of Ethiopian import and export
goods through the port of Djibouti had doubled to four million metric tonnes
within two years, encouraging port authorities to embark on a
15-million-US-dollar expansion of the port's terminal.
The general manager of the port of Djibouti, Aden Ahmed Douale, told a press
conference Tuesday that preparations were underway "to move the facilities
of the Port of Djibouti into the new century."
He said Djibouti would remain as a "crossroad and centre for regional
transhipment and forwarding" with the expansion of its port facilities.
The 15 million dollars will be utilised to increase the port's terminal
intended to triple the handling of its yard capacity.
Douale also said "negotiations are to begin shortly" with the Dubai port
authority of United Arab Emirates to improve and modernise the facilities of
the port of Djibouti on partnership basis.
Douale complained that Ethiopian companies owe more than two million dollars
to the port of Djibouti for services rendered, saying the port was asking
the Ethiopian government to help collect the debt.
He explained that the traffic of petroleum products at the port had grown
from 700,000 tonnes in 1998 to 1.1 million tonnes in 1999. "In both
instances, the shipment were essentially bound for Ethiopia," he added.
Despite its traditional dependence on the Eritrean Red Sea ports of Assab
and Massawa, Ethiopia also used the port of Djibouti in the past.
Ethiopia opted for the port of Djibouti as its outlet for international
trade following differences with Eritrea over parity in value of its new
currency, the nkafa, with the birr, which Asmara introduced in November
1997, abandoning the birr it has been using before and after independence in
1993.
The border dispute between the two countries, which surfaced in May 1998,
finally closed the availability of the two Eritrean ports.