The President of Ecuador Lenín Moreno and DP World Group Chairman and CEO, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem last week performed a ground-breaking ceremony to mark the start of construction of the first deep water port in Posorja, Ecuador.
The ceremony follows the 50-year concession the company won last year from the Government of Ecuador to build a facility with 750,000 TEU (twenty-foot container equivalent) of capacity to fuel the country’s economic growth and connect it with international markets.
According to DP, the $500 million initial investment (Phase 1) includes the purchase of land, dredging of a new access channel, a 20-kilometer access road and a 400-meter berth equipped to handle containers and other cargo.
DP World Group Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem , said: “ This is an important landmark in Ecuador’s growth story – we’re celebrating today the first public-private partnership that will benefit local economy and change forever the way it trades with the world. ”
Total investment will be over $1 billion for the entire project with thousands of jobs during construction, close to 1,000 jobs during operations, along with plans to develop a logistics zone to create a regional trading hub.
While work began in July on nearby access roads, construction of the port, which is located 65 kilometers from the country’s main business city of Guayaquil, is expected to take around 24 months to complete. Additionally, a 1 square kilometer logistics and industrial park, marked as a Special Economic Development Zone, will be developed adjacent to the port.
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