Djibouti, which is undertaking massive mega projects related to port and logistics services, announced that it will continue similar projects with the Public Private Partnership (PPP) to avoid a lot of external debt.
Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh, Minister of Economy and Finance of Djibouti, said that his country will continue its massive economic developments.
Ilyas said his country has numbers of investments in the pipeline. “To be honest we are coming to the limit of our public financing capacity and we should not look exclusively to public investment for regional infrastructure as well as national infrastructure for diversifications,” he explained.
In the past few years the government of Djibouti has carried out massive mega projects in infrastructure, port service and other major economic pillars.
Some of the major mega projects are the expansion and new ports of the country that are targeted to accommodate the growing import/ export demand of landlocked Ethiopia.
Within a single year in 2017 Djibouti has inaugurated three new ports including Doraleh Multipurpose Port (DMP), the biggest port facility for the country and in the region.
Other new companies; Djibouti National Shipping Company, Red Sea Bunkering, Air Djibouti , and railway also enjoy the logistics and infrastructure business through government ownership or on a JV basis.
Different reports have also stated that the country that has close to USD 2 billion GDP has an investment of six times more of its GDP or about USD 12 billion by the government and the private sector.
However the country registered massive growth in the past few years as recognized by international institutions and international partners like the International Monetary Fund who expressed their concern that the country’s external debt has been growing significantly.
They advised the government to slowdown some of the projects.
However the government of Djibouti stated that it will continue with in projects using different methods than it had previously used.
“Opportunities are there. Finance is not an issue as capital resource is available around the world. Capital availability in the world is highly in abundance,” Ilyas said.
“Now it is all about who will implement the sound policy, the regulatory framework, and who will be dependable for direct investment. So we frame it and under implementation of PPP so the investment will be increased once the business environment is made and fixed properly. But the priority is stability and peace of the country,” the finance minister explained.
He said the private sector’s role is key to transformation.
Other projects are also expected to enhance the country’s development.
“The capacity of our ports is now 20 million tons in a year and in the coming four years it will be 50 million tones,” Ilyas said. “Even if that’s the case, we can’t afford to handle 100 percent of Ethiopia’s shipments alone,” he added.
He said that Ethiopia is right to see alternative ports in the region adding that he would do the same if he was leader of Ethiopia. “We still will be the major logistics provider for Ethiopia,” he added.
“We also need to diversify our market for other partners like China or countries in the Middle East and Europe. If we can manage up to 70 percent of Ethiopia’s international trade traffic volume, then my ports will be working to their capacity. The remaining must be distributed to the rest of the ports in the region,” he added.

France’s policy towards Africa which has been biased towards Francophone Africa will change as part of new commitments made to the continent as a whole, according to Diane Binder, Member of the French Presidential Advisory Council for Africa.
During discussions with members of the media, Binder stated that while acknowledging the diversity, Frances policy towards Africa will include Anglophone Africa and others in its policy.
“The President wants to break from old ways of doing business. In terms of new policies, a very strong aspect of that could be, we the French have a strong bias for Francophone Africa for historical reasons, language, geography, population and so on. One of the policy changes he wants to make is to basically see Africa as one continent recognizing the diversity of the 54 countries. He is really trying to focus his policy on Anglophone Africa,” Binder pointed out.
Speaking on the focus of the new French government on letting bygones be bygones when it comes to the history of French colonization of African countries, Binder said that all must focus on the future.
“Colonization is definitely a sensitive issue and everybody acknowledges that. I think on the other hand you can’t always get back to the past to explain what is going on today and to think about what future you can build. The past is the past; some mistakes were made that have been acknowledged by the French President, but that shouldn’t prevent us from moving forward together and build new partnerships,” she stated.
Although there are a lot of claims that suggest Frances continuous involvement in the political affairs of its old colonial African nations, Binder argues that decisions made and steps taken after colonial times were by African governments, without France’s involvement.
“It’s true that we had a history where France had a responsibility in the way Francophone Africa has developed over the years, but the choices that have been made ever since the end of colonization are choices made by African governments so what we can do is, again, support policies any way that we can and try to build new partnerships,” she said.
The Presidential Advisory Council for Africa was set up in August this year by the French President. It has 10 members who were chosen by for their various experiences and exposure to the continent. All members come from civil society and have various backgrounds.

The Sugar Corporation awarded a procurement of 100,000 metric tons of sugar for the Dubai based supplier, Al Khaleej Sugar on Friday December 1.
The company which is familiar to the Ethiopian market will transport the product up to Djibouti port through January.
The sugar shortage has not been alleviated with local production so the government has imported 70,000 metric tons of sugar recently.
In the recent bid, though the invitation to short listed companies; five importers participated on November 24 hoping they would be picked to import the product as soon as possible.
The companies who bided are ED and F Man, Tereos Commodities, Agro Corp, Sucden, and Al Khaleej. Sucden is the company that supplied the 70,000 metric tons that was procured before the end of the past budget year to fill the gap that occurred when sugar factories shut down for maintenance at the beginning of the current budget year.
In the latest procurement Al Khaleej won the bid by offering 496.91 USD per ton up to the Djibouti port or FOB of 460.91 USD at the port of the initial point. The company is expected to supply the sweat from UAE or Pakistan and the payment will be settled within 12 months.
Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn recently said that the import of sugar will be continued until the shortage is alleviated.
Several sugar projects commenced in the first Growth and Transformation Plan, but none of them commenced commercial production.
In the last couple of months the sugar shortage was visibly observed in the capital and regional towns and the price of the product skyrocketed on the black-market. In his latest press briefing the PM apologized to the general public for the incident and he promised that the government will continue importing.
The corporation has plans to cut sugar imports as of the budget year and it has unsuccessfully to export sugar to Kenya.