ZCZC
BCN-17
UAE-TRANSPORT-ECONOMY
UAE port operator signs deal for logistics hub in Mali
DUBAI, July 25, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Dubai’s global ports operator DP World
said on Wednesday it has signed a deal to build a logistics hub outside
Bamako, the capital of Mali.
The logistics hub will be located on the main road between Senegal’s
capital Dakar and Bamako, in southern Mali, and close to the rail link
between the two West African cities.
It will have a capacity to handle some four million tonnes of general cargo
annually, DP World said in a statement.
The concession agreement was signed in Dubai on Monday by Mali’s transport
minister Moullaye Ahmed Boubacar.
The United Arab Emirates firm will invest $50 million (43 million euros) in
the first phase of the project, with construction due to start next year and
take 18 months to complete.
The deal is automatically renewable for another 20 years.
The hub will provide the logistics platform to promote the import and
export of goods through Dakar’s port, also run by DP World.
The Dubai-based company operates around 78 terminals in 40 countries
worldwide and last year it handled some 70 million containers.
Investors from the oil-rich Gulf states in 2014 pledged some $19 billion to
the West African Economic and Monetary Union, of which $16 billion was
committed by UAE firms.
Mali is a member of the eight-country bloc which also comprises Benin,
Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.
UAE and other Gulf countries made contributions to the French campaign
against jihadists affiliated with Al-Qaeda who overran northern Mali in 2012.
France intervened in 2013 to drive the jihadists back but swathes of
central and northern Mali remain wracked by violence, which has spilled
across its borders.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1410 hrs