This tiny African country aims to become as successful as Dubai

DUBAI is known as the most over-the-top place on earth. And in the not too distant future there might be a rival to it.

The capital, Djibouti city, is evolving at a fast pace. Picture: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

THE TINY east African country of Djibouti has bold plans to become the next Dubai.

Earlier this year it unveiled its ambitious “Djibouti 2035” plan, outlining how it would like to emulate Dubai, and the whole of the UAE. Bordered by Somalia, Ethiopia and Eriterea, when Djibouti gained independence from France in 1977 this tiny country had only one high school, one street and two doctors, according to Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh, Djibouti’s Minister of Economy and Finance. But since the 1970s, Djibouti has taken advantage of its strategic position and commercial relevance at the junction of Africa, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean — along one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes — to develop an important maritime port and establish the foundations for a burgeoning commercial hub. “In the next 20 years we would like Djibouti to reach the level of Singapore or Dubai,” Youssouf Moussa Dawaleh, President of the Djibouti Chamber of Commerce, told a conference last year. “We can get there if we work together.” Like Dubai, Djibouti’s mostly barren landscapes are unsuitable for agriculture, so making use of the country’s strategic position at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden is critical to turn the country into a regional logistics hub, the reports. Fourteen infrastructure projects, amounting to over $A19 billion, are focused on expanding Djibouti’s sea, air and land connections by 2035, according to the BBC. The most important aspect for travellers will be the new airport, which will have the capacity to welcome 30 times the current number of visitors. “About two million African customers travel to Dubai each year,” Dawit Gebre-Ab, with the Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority overseeing the city’s commercial infrastructure development, told “We know what is on their shopping lists, and they could be coming here instead.” Djibouti is home to Africa’s largest US army base and France’s biggest Foreign Legion deployment. France has thousands of troops as well as warships, aircraft and armoured vehicles in Djibouti, contributing directly and indirectly to the country’s income. Behind the construction cranes and flashy hotels, however, there exists a myriad of economic problems — 42 per cent of local Djiboutians live in extreme poverty, while 48 per cent of the labour force are unemployed, according to 2014 figures.