Dubai's DP World to oversee development of Ethiopia-Berbera trade corridor

Dubai: DP World and Ethiopia's Ministry of Transport have signed a MoU to develop the road linking Ethiopia to Berbera into one of the major trade and logistics corridors of the African country's international trade routes.

The MoU was signed in Addis Ababa today by Dagmawit Moges, Ethiopia's Minister of Transport, and Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO of DP World. It follows a decision by the two parties to explore the potential for more logistics infrastructure and end-to-end services along the corridor to "unlock major economic benefits for Ethiopia".

End-to-end service

The entities would set up a joint venture logistics company. It is intended that for exports, DP World will offer services from origin in Ethiopia up to Berbera Port, while for imports, it will offer from the port of loading to the delivery in one of the dry ports in the hinterlands or the final destination of the consignees.

DP World and its partners envisage investing up to $1bn over the next ten years in developing the supply chain infrastructure along the corridor. This will include dry ports, silos, warehouses, container yards, cool and cold chain depots, freight forwarding and clearing activities. 

The MoU also envisages that the Ministry of Transport will oversee a review and resolution of regulatory obstacles facing the Ethiopian side of the Berbera Corridor. Moges said: "Ethiopia aims to diversify its port access facilities and services to improve its trade corridor access routes; utilizing the Berbera corridor will surely have a potential to make Ethiopia a front runner in logistics operations, boosting the competitive advantage of delivering our products to the world market. The development of this Corridor will not only meet with the growing demand of Ethiopian's international trade, but it would also enhance our Nation's capacity in utilizing our existing major corridor both in terms of volume of trade and efficiency."