Ethiopia to Help Sudan Develop Port as It Builds Export Routes

(Bloomberg) -- Sudan and Ethiopia agreed to work together in developing and managing Port Sudan, their presidents said, as landlocked Ethiopia attempts to expand trade routes essential for its export-led economy.

“We have agreed to expand our exchange,” Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told reporters Thursday in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. Standing alongside, Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir said his country is committed to providing “all the needed facilities” to ensure the flow of goods via its Red Sea ports to and from Ethiopia. Neither gave further details.

Ethiopia -- ranked Africa’s fastest-growing economy by the International Monetary Fund -- already ships large consignments such as fertilizer through Port Sudan. Abiy’s government this week reached a preliminary agreement with Djibouti, the neighboring Red Sea state that handles most of its exports, to swap shares in state-owned ports, airlines and telecommunications. Earlier this year it took a stake in a port in Somaliland, a semi-autonomous part of Somalia that aspires to statehood.

To contact the reporters on this story: Paul Richardson in Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Nizar Manek in Addis Ababa at nmanek2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Andre Janse van Vuuren

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.