Jubaland president receives Turkish Ambassador to Somalia

[Deeq A.]

By Ahmed Abdi

KISMAYO (Somaliland Informer) —Jubaland State President Ahmed Mohamed Islam (Ahmed Madobe) received a high-level Turkish delegation-led by Turkey’s Ambassador to Somalia Olgan Bekar at Presidential Palace in Kismayo on Sunday.

“Ambassador Bekar and his team among them members of Turkish Municipality Union and Turkish traders have discussed with President Ahmed Madobe the initiatives of some developmental projects in Jubaland,” reads a post published in the president’s official Facebook on Monday.

“There are similarities between Turkey’s Antalya and Somalia’s southern port city of Kismayo so that implementing the twin towns programs as well as Special Economic Zones (SEZ) were agreed,” the statement further reads.

According to the President’s Official Facebook, Ambassador Bekar told President Ahmed that he will do everything to execute the plans that were discussed during the meeting as soon as possible.

Over the last 7 years, Ankara has been supporting the Somali nation in terms of infrastructure, trade and humanitarian spheres as well as military assistance.

Jubaland is Somalia’s most prosperous regional state, which has Somalia’s largest coast and provides its population seafood, fruits and vegetables as well as Somalia’s traditional food of meat, milk and butter at the same time. Ras-kamboni, a coastal town in the Indian Ocean near Kenya border is thought to have rich deposits of oil.

The United States first built the port of Kismayo and China involved in some industrial projects in this autonomous state before the civil war in the 1990s.