PUNTLAND PRESIDENT PROMISES AMICABLE SOLUTION TO STALLED DEVELOPMENT OF BOSASO PORT
Garowe (PP News Desk) — Puntland president Said Abdullahi Deni on Friday opened the 47th session of Puntland Parliament and briefed MPs about his recent visit to Mogadishu, the agreement on the electoral model and talks with DP World executives in the United Arab Emirates.
“We are working hard to find an amicable solution to the Bosaso Port agreement complications with DP World without putting Puntland relations with (the) UAE at risk” President Deni said.
The President said his administration was honouring an agreement signed by his predecessor and endorsed by the Puntland Parliament. “We are looking into criticisms against DP World regarding (the) management of Bosaso Port” he added.
In 2017, Puntland State granted DP World a thirty-year concession to manage and develop “a multi-purpose port project at Bosasso in the Puntland State of Somalia.”
When the agreement was signed, DP World was a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq Dubai. In February 2020, however, DP World was delisted and returned to private ownership.
A contract law expert told Puntland Post that the change in ownership structure of the company will have an impact on DP World’s contractual obligations.
“Puntland State was influenced partly by the company’s previous status as a publicly traded company. When a company delists investors raise questions about its management and viability” said the London-based law of contracts lecturer.
“The move to take DP World private comes as the Emirate struggles to steer itself out of a five-year economic slowdown triggered by the 2014, collapse in oil prices and growing geopolitical turmoil” reported London’s Financial Times.
© Puntland Post, 2020
The above article first appeared in the Puntland Post and is republished with permission
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