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| ENFIDHA: THE NEXT DUBAI ? |
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New ports are the cornerstons of Tunisia's ambitions
"It's not forbidden to think that our community will one day resemble Dubai," Mhadhebi Mhadheb, the mayor of the coastal town of Enfidha, once told Jeune Afrique magazine. Most readers promptly assumed that the man had gone mad, although today his words do not seem quite that insane after all.
The Tunisian government has big plans for tiny Enfidha, which is set to become one of the country's main industrial and logistics centres.
A first step towards the eventual realisation of this ambition was taken in May 2007, when the Turkish airport operator TAV Airports Holding won a $618m contract to build and operate the airport at Enfidha. The build-operate-transfer contract has a concession period of 40 years and includes the operation of Monastir airport, with over 4m
passengers per year, making it Tunisia's busiest airport.
Construction works at Enfidha Airport started on July 25,2007. On an area of 5700 ha,TAVAirports is to build a 70,000 sq-metre terminal, an 84-metrehigh control tower and a 3600-metre-long runway. - The airport is scheduled to open in 2009.
Many people have questioned whether or not Tunisia really needs an eighth airport, yet according to Habib Mekki, the director of air transport at the Ministry of Transport, studies have shown hat between 2015 and 2017 the country will face a capacity shortage, primarily due to increased tourism at the coastal region between Cap Bon and Sousse. Consequently, TAV expects to handle nearly 5m passengers during the first few years of operation and no less than 30m by 2020. The latter number may be a bit optimistic, but then again, TAVAirports Holding earned its stars in the airport business.
Established in 1997 as a merger between the Turkish Tepe and Akfen groups, TAV has become a well-known name in the industry ever since it started constructing and then operating the giant Istanbul Airport, built in 2000. It is important to remember that many people had doubts regarding the raison d'etre behind Istanbul's airport, and that today it is one of Europe's busiest.
In 2008, the Tunisian government is expected to put out to tender bids for the construction of a deepwater port at Enfidha. With an estimated price tag of $1.4bn, the project includes, among other things, the construction of two massive breakwaters to protect the port on the north and south sides and the dredging of a deeper entrance canal and digging out of the actual port, which is set to have a depth of 18 metres in order to handle larger ships with a capacity of up to 80,000 tonnes.
The future port is planned to consist of 3.6 km of docking areas and a container handling area with a capacity of 5m containers by 2030, while a state-of-the-art logistics centre is to be constructed onshore.
Technical and environmental impact studies were completed by the end of 2007 and a tender i expected to be launched by the end of 2008. Again, some critics have expressed doubts as to whether or not Tunisia is in need of a new harbour. However, the country has a very limited capacity to receive large container ships, while the global trend
is to build bigger and bigger boats. Also, one should not forget that Tunisia recently signed a free trade
agreement with the EU and a Mediterranean free trade zone may one day become a reality.
As such, the new international airport and deepwater harbour will likely not only play essential roles as entry and exit points for the new industrial zone of Enfidha, but could also serve as the cornerstones of the government's ambitious plan to turn Tunisia into a regional transport centre and distribution platform.
If there is a valuable lesson that Dubai taught world industry and commerce, it is that if a solid concept is thoroughly thought through and perfectly executed, supply can create its own demand and ambitions can one day be achieved.
And maybe that isthe lesson that Enfidha's mayor,MhadhebiMhadheb, has understood betterthan the rest.
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