The East African Corridor Review Conference, a trade route linking Berbera in Somaliland and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, opened yesterday in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
The meeting is attended by mayors from some of the regional states and the self-declared republic of Somaliland.
The focus is on reforming and improving infrastructure to facilitate trade and the movement of people and goods.
The route linking Addis Ababa and Berbera is seen as important and will bring many benefits to both communities.
Engineer Shaafi Ahmed Macalin, the mayor of Jigjiga city in the Somali Regional State, told the BBC that Ethiopia sees the Berbera-Addis Ababa corridor as important.
“This corridor is truly an important corridor for the general public of Ethiopia and Somaliland, which will boost economic connectivity and regional cooperation in general,” Mr Shaafi said.
He added that the importance of this conference is to discuss how to achieve success in the Berbera to Addis Ababa corridor project.
“This conference will discuss and conduct studies at universities, especially the University of Jigjiga, on the challenges that may arise from the Berbera corridor project as well as the benefits that can be obtained from it,” he added.
