DUBAI, April 6 (Xinhua) -- A Dubai-owned port operator announced here on Thursday winning of a 30-year concession to develop a multi-purpose port project in Somalia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) state news agency WAM reported.
The Dubai-owned, London-based P&O Ports said the concession, worth 336 million U.S. dollars, is for the development of the Port of Bosaso in the state of Puntland, Somalia.
The president of Puntland, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, and the chairman of Ports, Customs and Freezone Corporation (PCFC), Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, signed the agreement at a ceremony in the presence of senior government officials and representatives of PCFC.
Work on the project will involve building a 450-meter quay and a 50,000 square meters back up area, dredging to a depth of 12 meters with reclamation work using dredge spoil.
There will also be major investment in an IT and terminal operating system, mobile harbor cranes and container handling equipment.
President Ali said infrastructure development is a priority for the government of Puntland as it "underpins the efforts of taking this country forward."
This concession agreement of expanding the Bosaso port is a major achievement for the Puntland government and its people, said Ali, hailing it as promoting the historical and the trade relations between the UAE and Somalia.
PCFC Chairman Bin Sulayem noted that the Port of Bosaso fits the company's mandate to invest in multipurpose ports in emerging markets.
The Port of Bosaso is located in state of Puntland in Somalia, 2,000 kilometers north of the capital Mogadishu. It occupies a strategic location for maritime transport in the Gulf of Aden at the southern approach to the Red Sea and Suez Canal.
