The President, His Excellency Musa Bihi Abdi, on Tuesday, received Board members overseeing Berbera Port development activities in line with the proposed modernization of the seaport as embodied in the agreement reached with DP World, the Free Zone, Berbera Oil Terminal and Berbera Port top management.
Present at the meeting were the three Chief Executive Officers of Berbera Port, Free Zone and Oil Terminal as well as members of the Board of Directors of DP World and the Free Zone.
The meeting centered, according to the official Facebook page of the Presidency, on briefing the President on how far the tenets stipulated by the agreement with DP World have progressed, what the status of charted activities planned for the year was, what was on the pipeline, and how soon would major groundwork on the Free Zone and new port quay would begin.
At the end of the meeting, Abdirahman Hassan and Mohamed Sheikh Farah, speaking on behalf of the Ports management bodies and the Free Zone, respectively, talking to the press stated that the meeting was not only about briefing the president on progress of activities but, also, about laying forth a roadmap on how to accelerate and carry out essential activities outlined in the agreement with DP World, and in the construction of the Free Zone.
The two officers revealed that a 400-meter expansion to the existing container terminal of the port will start in October this year and that all other activities pertaining the two areas are ready to take off since requisite preparations, designs, and plans have all been completed.
“His Excellency the President will lay the first brick for the expansion coming October,” Abdirahman said.
Mohamed Sheikh, speaking for the Free Zone, disclosed that the government has undertaken to wrap the last loose ends relating the FZ grounds and that they were on track as planned.
Some public concern had, of late, surfaced on the snail’s pace progress of activities associated with the DP World agreement.
The President’s meeting with the officials was inspired, it is believed, by that concern.
