Ethiopia 'Working to Use' Berbera Port, 2018 Report Said

On 31 March 2018, Horn Diplomat reported that Ethiopia was 'working to use' Berbera Port in a way that would not affect the relationship between Ethiopia and Somalia, attributing the statement in its headline to an unnamed 'Ethiopian Minister'.

That headline is the only record of the Berbera statement in the report. It carries no date, venue, counterpart or forum. The article body identifies the interviewee as Dr. Aklilu Hailemichael, State Minister for Business and Diaspora Affairs in Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an identification Horn Diplomat attributes to the ministry's website. No verbatim quotation from the minister on Berbera Port is included.

What the report does not establish

The report does not establish what Ethiopia did about Berbera Port after 31 March 2018. No agreement, lease, equity stake, port access terms, volumes, tariffs, customs arrangement or implementing decision is recorded. Nor does the report name any Ethiopian government, Somaliland government, DP World or Somali federal government document corroborating the headline statement. No Somali federal government reaction or position on Ethiopian use of Berbera Port appears.

Whether Ethiopia has since used Berbera Port, at what volume or under what arrangement, is absent from the document.

Ministerial claims in the same interview

The wider interview, as published by Horn Diplomat, is dominated by Dr. Aklilu's claims about Ethiopian investment and trade. He said Ethiopia has set manufacturing as the top priority for foreign investors, the area where he said the country lacks capital, with priority sub-sectors in textiles, garments, leather, agro-processing, pharmaceuticals and construction materials. He said Ethiopia has a vision to have a large manufacturing economy by 2025. That was a target recorded in 2018; the document contains no retrospective assessment.

He also said Ethiopia registered a 23 percent increase in FDI in the previous year, that companies came from India, the USA, Europe, China and others, that Ethiopia has AGOA access to the USA without tax and quotas, that it has a bilateral preferential trade agreement with more than 50 countries, and that every kebele has at least three agricultural extension workers. None of these claims carries base years, absolute values or a cited source report. They are ministerial claims as quoted by Horn Diplomat, not verified outcomes.

Export and investment context

The Horn Diplomat interviewer, not Ethiopian records, characterised last year's exports as having not met the USD four billion expectations. The document does not give an actual export value. Separately, the interviewer noted that protests in the two years before the interview damaged property of some foreign and local companies in Ethiopia; no locations, companies or figures are recorded. The minister said the violence did not stop Ethiopia's development, and said the economy had grown by double digits over the last 15 years. Both are claims, not verified statistics.

The report also states that Ethiopia has an Ethiopian Investment Commission established to provide investor services, and quotes the minister saying industrial parks include shelter, water, roads, power, banks and customs offices, with regional investment bureaus working to provide faster services. It gives no park names, locations, capacity or occupancy data.

What happens next

Horn Diplomat's report contains no follow-up, status update or implementing decision on Berbera Port. Ethiopian use of the port in 2018 was framed as work in progress, and the document does not record what followed it.