Somaliland, with support from International Finance Cooperation (IFC), has launched an online one–stop–shop business registration and licensing system (BRLS)to speed, simplify, and reduce costs for businesses and entrepreneurs. The new system, found at www.brls.govsomliland.org, is part of Somaliland’s wider strategy to strengthen its private sector and encourage economic growth and job…
Differences over plans to reshuffle Somaliland’s licensed political parties and the sequencing of elections have cast doubts over the electoral calendar since December 2021. In light of the legal and technical timelines, it is now an “open secret” that Muse Bihi’s elected term would expire before presidential elections can be…
By Stephen M. Schwartz Joshua Meservey, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, advocated in a recent policy paper that the United States recognize Somaliland as an independent state. This serious proposal is overdue for consideration. Meservey recounts that Somaliland ended its voluntary union with Somalia in May 1991 and has been…
Former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs of the United States Jendayi Frazer now says she feels the George Bush administration should have recognized Somaliland two decades ago. In an interview with Michelle Gavin in the Council on Foreign Relations blogpost about the evolution of U.S. policy toward Somaliland,…
Somalia and Somaliland are facing one of the worst droughts in decades after four consecutive poor rainy seasons. Failing crops and rising food prices, combined with ongoing insecurity and a massive invasion of locusts that swept across the Horn of Africa, have forced hundreds of thousands of people to move…
"It's a secret," smiles Allen C Lou, when asked how many Taiwanese personnel are based in Hargeisa, capital of the unrecognised state of Somaliland in the Horn of Africa. Taiwan is committed to recognising the de facto state and Lou is Taipei's chief diplomat. But he is coy about just how…
The political impasse in Somaliland created by the government unwilling to commit to holding the Presidential elections in the stipulated constitutional date of November, the international community is now showing its concern. On Wednesday, a delegation from the European Union and Sweden paid a visit to Somaliland to facilitate a…
The United States Senate has unanimously approved the implementation of the Somaliland-US Cooperation Act, which was previously approved by the House of Representatives. During a session at the US Capitol Hill, members of the Senate approved the Somaliland-US Cooperation Act. The 100-member US Senate approved the Somaliland Cooperation Act, a…
Taiwan and Somaliland signed an agreement on energy and mineral resources cooperation Monday that Taiwan's office in Somaliland said provides a legal foundation for joint resource exploration and drilling activities and other related initiatives. The agreement was signed by Economic Affairs Minister Wang Mei-hua in Taipei and Somaliland Energy and…
By Joshua Meservey Salon.com ran a piece recently warning that the American right is “waging a stealth, neocolonial assault on Somalia.” The supposed “assault” is a growing campaign within the U.S. and elsewhere to recognize Somaliland’s independence from Somalia. The author, Mohamoud Gaildon, included as evidence a report that I wrote back in October.…
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