SOMALILAND: President Silanyo to visit Kuwait and UAE

[Siciid1986]

HARGEISA — President Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo is expected to visit the Gulf nations of Kuwait and United Arab Emirates at their invitation sometime this week. According to sources close to the state, the Kuwaiti government has sent a private jet for the President and he will reportedly attend a series of meetings with senior ministers and business executives in the Gulf States.

 

The government has not officially commented on the trip but official sources in Dubai told local media that the president will hold talks with Kuwait Energy Company (KEC), an independent oil & gas exploration and production company. KEC has already obtained concessions to explore and drill for oil and minerals in blocks originally granted to Chevron and Amoco by Siad Bare in the 1980s. The two American oil giants were forced to halt and withdraw from the country after the Somali National Movement (SNM) led by the current president overran Siad Bare’s forces.

 

Early studies have shown that Somaliland has proven deposits of oil along the coast and the Golis mountain ranges. It also has extensive natural coal deposits (estimated at 5 billion tonnes) in the Daban Basin (southeast of Berbera), Guveneh Hills (north of Las Dureh) and Hed-Hed (south of Onkhor) Large quantities of titanium and zircon also exist. Kuwait funds and supports a number of development programs in Somaliland and recently announced it was providing $10 million to renovate both Hargeisa and Berbera airports. Kuwait also has plans to assist Somaliland in the areas of education and health.

 

After Kuwait, the President will go on to Dubai where he will first meet with as yet undisclosed Chinese company and is expected to sign a deal for the development of the port of Berbera. In recent months, the Government of Ethiopia has been urging Hargeisa to speed up development for its deep-water port in Berbera so that it can transfer some of its commercial cargo there rather than having to use Djibouti. All of this comes ahead of plans to build a road dubbed the Berbera Corridor linking the port-town to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. Work for the road is expected to begin mid-2012 and will cost an estimated $5.3 million which will be funded by the EU.

 

The President will also take part in an international conference on maritime piracy in Dubai that is co-hosted by Dubai Ports World and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 18th – 19th April. This conference according to Emirates News Agency (WAM) has already received considerable interest from the international community and will seek to be a vehicle for discussion and generate policy ideas to tackle what has become a growing menace to harmonious trade in the region. Dubai has signalled its willingness to become a driving force against piracy in an effort to restore maritime confidence in the region since it is a global hub for trade and commerce. DP world is one of the largest marine terminal operators in the world, operating in more than 31 countries with over 50 terminals.

 

All of these discussions and commercial activity is further proof if it were needed of Somaliland’s inexorable move towards being fully accepted and recognized as a sovereign state by the international community.

 

Somaliland departed from Somalia after a union between the two Horn of Africa nations failed in 1991 following a bloody civil war.

[N.O.R.F]

Woohooo!

[Jacaylbaro]

Ha la hubsado ..

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Jacaylbaro;710343 wrote:

Ha la hubsado ..

waaheen run badan ma sheego