{"id":219707,"date":"2018-05-04T02:24:40","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T06:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=219707"},"modified":"2019-02-10T09:35:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T14:35:43","slug":"ethiopia-gets-ownership-stake-in-port-sudan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/219707","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia acquires ownership stake in Port Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ethiopia&#8217;s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has been in Khartoum during the past two days, struck a deal with the Government of Sudan that gives Ethiopia an unspecified amount of ownership stake in Port Sudan. A number of countries, including wealthy Gulf states, are increasing their investments in sea ports on the Red Sea as they compete for influence in a strategic corridor vital to shipping lines and oil routes. More from Reuters: <\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Port-Sudan.jpg?resize=747%2C423&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"747\" height=\"423\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-219708\" \/><\/p>\n<p>(Reuters) &#8211; Ethiopia and Sudan have agreed on a deal allowing the Horn of Africa nation to take a stake in Sudan\u2019s largest sea gateway port of Port Sudan, officials said on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Several countries including wealthy Gulf states have ramped up investments in seaports along the Red Sea and East Africa\u2019s coast as they vie for influence in a strategic corridor that is vital for shipping lanes and oil routes.<\/p>\n<p>While the likes of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey are using some of the ports for military purposes, Ethiopia &#8211; which lost its access to the sea following the secession of former province Eritrea in 1993 &#8211; is aiming to strike deals in a bid to diversify outlets and reduce port fees.<\/p>\n<p>The deal between Addis Ababa and Sudan was reached in Khartoum on Thursday at a meeting between Ethiopia\u2019s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Sudan\u2019s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe leaders of both countries agreed to develop Port Sudan together,\u201d said Meles Alem, spokesman for Ethiopia\u2019s Foreign Ministry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis deal entails that Ethiopia will be a shareholder of the port as well,\u201d he told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>No financial details of the agreement were disclosed.<\/p>\n<p>Another official said that the agreement would enable Ethiopia to have a say in the level of port handling fees.<\/p>\n<p>The deal comes two days after Ethiopia reached a similar arrangement over the Port of Djibouti, Djibouti\u2019s main gateway for trade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccess to a diversified range of ports is a strategic imperative for the government of Ethiopia. That is perhaps one of its most important priorities in terms of trade and development,\u201d said Ahmed Salim, vice president at the Teneo global advisory firm.<\/p>\n<p>Ethiopia\u2019s involvement supported the financing and development of the Sudan and Djibouti ports, he added.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.outstream.min.js\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<div id=\"Brid_25339566\" class=\"brid\" itemprop=\"video\" itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/VideoObject\"> <\/div>\n<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\"> $bos(\"Brid_25339566\", {\"id\":\"5915\",\"width\":\"770\",\"height\":\"432\"}); <\/script><\/p>\n<p>Djibouti had been seeking investors for its port since it terminated the concession for Dubai\u2019s state-owned DP World to run the port in February, citing a failure to resolve a six-year contractual dispute.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement with Ethiopia gave Djibouti the option of taking stakes in state-owned Ethiopian firms. The companies that it may look to invest in include Ethiopian Electric Power and Ethio Telecom \u2013 one of Africa\u2019s last remaining telecoms monopolies.<\/p>\n<p>It was not clear if Sudan\u2019s agreement involved a similar arrangement with Ethiopia.<\/p>\n<p>Djibouti\u2019s location is of strategic value to countries such as the United States, China, Japan and former colonial power France, all of which have military bases there.<\/p>\n<p>The deal with Djibouti also followed Ethiopia\u2019s agreement to acquire a 19 percent stake in the Port of Berbera in the breakaway Somali region of Somaliland. DP World retains a 51 percent stake there, while the government holds the rest.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Khartoum\u2019s deal with Ethiopia came in the wake of another arrangement signed with Turkey, which wants to rebuild Suakin &#8211; a ruined Ottoman port city on Sudan\u2019s Red Sea coast &#8211; and construct a dock to maintain civilian and military vessels.<\/p>\n<p>Qatar has also agreed to develop the same port to the tune of $4 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ethiopia&#8217;s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has been in Khartoum during the past two days, struck a deal with the Government of Sudan that gives Ethiopia an unspecified amount of ownership stake in Port Sudan. A number of countries, including wealthy Gulf states, are increasing their investments in sea ports on the Red Sea as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4591],"class_list":["post-219707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news","tag-port-sudan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Port-Sudan.jpg?fit=747%2C423&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-V9F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219707"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219711,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219707\/revisions\/219711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}