BY DANIEL ALEMAYEHU
In the Amharic book entitled ‘Aseb yemannat?’ or ‘To whom Assab belongs?’ by the famous politician, professor of business law and former Senior Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Dr. Yakob Hailemariam, says that having a port has tremendous advantages regarding a country’s economic, social, political, diplomacy, and defense activities. In the East African Region, there are six nearby ports that Ethiopia can use after the country became a land- locked. Among these ports, the farthest from Addis Ababa is Mombasa Port which is 1,804 km away and the nearest is port Assab which was the property of Ethiopia and transferred to the Eritrean government since its formation as an independent State following liberalization in 1991. This port is found only 624 km away from the capital, Addis Ababa. After the Ethio-Eritrean war, the Ethiopian government started to use mainly the Djibouti Port, which is about 910 km from Addis.
There are around 44 landlocked countries around the world. Out of these countries, 31 of them are under poverty level and the rest 13 countries are under absolute poverty. Ethiopian is one of the thirteen countries. There are also land locked countries that have used their economic strength and become rich because their neighboring countries are rich too.
Just 33 km farther than the Djibouti Port, one can find Port of Berbera of Somaliland, which the Ethiopian government owns 19 percent of its share along with DP World 51 percent and Somali Land 30 percent.
Owning a sea port is essential for countries like Ethiopia which most of the export trade takes place through this route. It is obvious that having a sea port is one of the core points for the development of a country, it stated.
While approached by The Ethiopian Herald, Wossenseged Assefa, an economist, said that the new Ethiopian owned Port of Berbera brings new status to the country. Having government owned port is vital to the development of the country. With its great number of population over 110 million, it is shocking for the nation to be a land-locked. Being a landlocked has ample impact on the development and well being of the nation. Hence, it is a new way for Ethiopia to have a corridor in the water world.
He added that there are not more that 15 countries that are land locked but, unlike Ethiopia, these countries have small number of populations. According to the recent data, 90 percent of Ethiopia’s import export trade is conducted through the Ports.
“If the Ethiopian government shifts its port from elsewhere to the new Berbera Port, the rent that the government pays will be reduced. Again, the cost per item will be decreased so that there is a huge change on the price of all items especially basic commodities,” he remarked.
As to him, when a nation owns a port, the challenges related with the logistics will be lessened because the duties on one’s port will be run by its own citizens so that any kind of inconvenience will be resolved as a result of everyone is working for the same goal which is the wholesome development of the country.
The economist further highlighted that if there is any dispute between countries, for example Ethiopia with Djibouti or Ethiopia with Sudan, the port owner countries cannot refuse to give the service due to the international agreements, but they may decelerate the whole activities. In this case, Ethiopia will lose greatly.
Brendon J. Cannon, Assistant Professor of International Security at the Institute of International and Civil Security, Khalifa University of Science and Technology on his article about the balance of power in Horn of Africa also supported the Economist’s opinion. As to the Professor: “If a landlocked country and its transit neighbor are in conflict, either military or diplomatic, the transit neighbor can block borders, implement regulatory changes that impede trade, or simply increase tariffs. Even when there is no direct conflict, landlocked countries are extremely vulnerable to the political vagaries of their transit neighbors.” For many reasons, Ethiopia now has a blossom future because of having a shared port.
Furthermore, the Economist said that whatever the share that the Ethiopian government holds on the new Port of Berbera, the nation becomes independent from any kind of unwanted pressures and will develop mutual relations with the countries.
“Every time when there are competitions, the price will decline. Due to this, the price that the Ethiopian government pays for the port services will decline too. If Ethiopia uses many doors for its business and economic activities, the power and political discussions will be in a mutual benefit context. This means that economical strength of a nation will lead to political strength,” he remarked.
With the same token, Ethiopia has a firm stance to rebuild the naval force on the coast of the sea. Without the legal procedures and owned ports, it will be impossible or hard at least. Therefore, the Port of Berbera will pave a way for the strong military force along with peaceful relationships and common interests among East African countries, he added.
While discussing the impact of the distance of the port from the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, the economist explained that it is essential to see the bright side of the situation. “Of course, it is far, but we cannot change anything about the distance because we need to be at the shore of the sea to do business.” He also indicated: “Having a share on the Port of Berbera doesn’t mean that it is our only door to the water world. We continue using other ports like we used to do. However, the government should give special consideration on the qualities of the road transport and the logistic service as the distance is a little bit far from other ports like Djibouti, for instance.”
The major concern about the new Port of Berbera is what is needed from the Ethiopian government to use it wisely in the coming run. The Economist pin points different ideas for the betterment of the wise usage. He said that it is obvious that the country needs ports because its economy is import-oriented. Berbera is not enough for countries like Ethiopia with large number of population so that it needs more ports to own. It is not as simple as such to predict what will happen in the future, so the Ethiopian government should work on owning other ports just like Berbera. As the government built peaceful relationship with the neighboring country, Eritrea, on the social and political issues, it will be terrific if these two governments uplift this relation to economic level in order to maintain development for both parties.
Therefore, though the Ethiopian government stepped forward to keep the development of the nation, this should not be the end. Many agreements should be made with neighboring countries so as to get quality services from their ports. Besides, the government should work exhaustively to own many more shared ports with different stakeholders. This path will benefit the country in all aspects of development, he opined.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD JULY 1/2021
