Business
Chinese and Indian firms bid for Hargeisa airport expansion
December 17, 2011 · 17 Comments
HARGEISA — The Somaliland Minister of Civil Aviation on Friday unveiled plans to renovate and expand Hargeisa’s Egal International Airport at early next year.
Mr. Mohamud Hashi Abdi told reporters that the infrastructure investment will cost $10 million which was donated by the government of Kuwait. He added it will create jobs for locals and help attract regional airliners to Hargeisa.
The conference held at Ambassador Hotel attracted local and international construction firms from neighboring countries and the two Asian economic giants; India and China.
Each bidding enterprise presented its plans and offers to the Ministry. Mr. Abdi thanked all the bidding companies for their efforts and presentations and promised to cooperate with the winner. He said the winner will be announced in the days ahead.
Later in the day officials from the bidding enterprises toured the airport with the minister. Locals believe the Chinese firms will win the $10 million project. Mr Abdi promised to rehabilitate Somaliland’s long neglected roads. He said it was important to improve Somaliland’s roads and airports to help promote economic corridor and sub-regional trade flow. He finally thanked the government of Kuwait for its generous donation.
Somalilandpress
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Tags: Airport, China, India, Kuwait, Somaliland, Trade
Readers Comments (17)
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The Somaliland Government should not repeat the mistake they made when they let the contract for Hargeisa's second bridge. Every single construction rule was broken when that bridge was being built by a local contractor and it will not last long.
The airport renovation contracts shou;ld to competant foreign Contractors who have the right expertise.
I would advise the government not to even consider bids from India. Indian contractors are incompetent and I can guarantee that they will not get value for money from them. You only have to go to India to see their crumbling infrastructure, even with those newly built. China would be the best choice in this case, as they have the best experience in Africa.
You have overgeneralised a nation based on some poor infrastructure you saw on TV.
Check the Internet for the Delhi Metro, Indira Gandhi International Airport or Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
China has great infrastructure, but poor building quality due to corruption has led to disasters e.g. China High Speed Rail crash recently and collapse of motorways.
I have been to India and I think that they are as suitable for the job as China.
I agree with you mate. Their commonwealth games preparations was shambles. Somaliland should be careful even with the Chinese as everyone is in just for the money. But my question is: why can’t the Somaliland government buy good construction equipment with the money, train our own people, and then build the airport ourselves? I don’t mind landing on a runway constructed by Wacays and Faarax but only after making sure that the first few aircrafts had land safely.
Yeah, they messed up their CWG preparations due to corruption. The Indian people are extremely angry with their politicians and are kicking them out as we speak!
The most important thing for any out contracted project depends upon how capable is the
Govt. to oversight the quality control of such project(s)…this one or else!. Just see how the
GCC Airports/Roads/towns are built and which Intl.Contractor(s) were better than whom?
Cheers.
Firstly i am somewhat dismayed that the ruling part of Somaliland can not save 10 million or borrow it from the private sector given all the good news about private sector booming and tax revenue. Secondly considering the current capacity of Egal Airport it is servicing effectively the business and personal travel aims of the small population we have so why wouldn't this government come up with effective and efficient plans to redirect this handout fund to other crucial infrastructure such as the WATER supply pipelines and so forth.? or is it another sustainable corrupted project?
Well done Mr minister Mohamoud Hashi Abdi you proven wrong all the misleading local news papers and telling the truth along to the Somaliland people. Continue the good work.
Well done
I find it quiet funny that people are comparing Chinese and the Indians in the construction field. Its like comparing apples and oranges. The Chinese have built some of the world's greatest infrastructures that stood over time, whether be their Great Wall of China or the U.S. railway system or the hundreds of others around the world and in China.
The Indians themselves are asking the Chinese to help them build infra projects worth over a trillion dollar.
The West might tell you the Chinese have "poor" products but thats all lie, themselves they all go to China and build their infrastructures in China then without anyone knowing it they ship it to Western cities and assemble it piece by piece.
We have seen how the Indians couldnt handle the Commonwealth Games while the Chinese surpassed all expectations in the bigger Olympic Games.
Please stop comparing apples and oranges.
If you said programming or IT, the Indians have some hope but engineering and manufacturing is all China.
To @Surad1960
You have a good point there. Unfortunately our mentality says: if we have a fancy airport, then that determines our progress as a nation instead of thinking practically to say, lets builds a decent runway which meets the arrival/departures demand and once off expansion to the temporary airport facilities. I fear this obsession will not justly answer the child/mother who suffers from thirst on a regular basis due to poor Water infrastructure by saying we are compromising our donations only to please our obsessions including that of the international community as they enter the airport facility.
So much could be done with $10 million. Think about it, it costed Ethiopia just under $ 4 million to construct the Jijiga airport which has a longer run way than the planned Hargeisa airport (jijiga 3km/Hargeisa planned 2.5km). According to http://www.ethiopiainsight.com/news/jijigas_new_a…. The excess amount should be redirected to the repairing of the exisiting Water utilities installations or better yet the poor road infrastructure notably around the City centre area…
I definitely agree, without doubts there will be an excess amount. But the planned hargaisa should not be anything less than 3km
No airport in a poor unrecognized African state costs $10million stop lying to us so called minister. He will probably cash in the rest of the $6 million and offer the Chinese contractors $4 million for a tiny regional airport with one run-way.
Hargeisa airport cant even support a run-way longer than 2km. Been there myself. Stop the BS.
Even though most of us prefer the chinese, it is very good that the two (Indians and Chinese) are both bidding for it because this will reduce the cost due to competition and you know how the Indians and Chinese both worship money kkk
I think the Chinese will do a better than the the Indians but, then again, Indians are better the local contractors.
The other thing is no matter who wins the contract, there has to be transparency and accountability. The National Tenders Commission shoulod open the bid in front of the public and make it clear how they would choose the right contractor.
i think these contracts who built Capital Airport we welcomed them so as to upgarde our mirror in the nation wide, but tender commission should follow date of the contract and other srvices they paid us…. and announced follow committee in order to avoid delay with airport service to nation….
Is this one somalia or not
To all I would like add, one point, how can we best safeguard the interest of "Somaliland".