On Thursday, the east African state of Djibouti commissioned a $3.5 billion, Chinese-built free trade zone, deepening ties with the Asian giant and helping the Horn of Africa nation generate more jobs. The new trade zone covers 48 square km and was built by China’s Dalian Port Corporation.
Djibouti, with a population of 876,000, already hosts Chinese, US and French naval bases and it also handles roughly 95% of the goods imported by Ethiopia, its land-locked neighbour with 99 million people.
The zone will be jointly operated by Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority and China’s Merchants Holdings company, Reuters reported.
The agreement to build the free trade zone was signed in March 2016 as part of China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, which is a bid to expand trade routes with a series of infrastructure initiatives stretching across 60 countries.
Except from the Djibouti President, the inauguration ceremony was attended by the presidents of Rwanda, Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan.
In the following video, Djibouti President Kagame speaks on the occasion of the inauguration of International Free Trade Zone:
