L’Éthiopie mettra en service sa ligne de chemin de fer à écartement standard, assurant la liaison entre la capitale Addis-Abeba et l’État de Djibouti en mer Rouge, en octobre 2016. Ce projet est au centre des programmes de création de nouvelles entreprises manufacturières en Éthiopie et au cœur de la stimulation commerciale. La voie s’étend sur 800 kilomètres et a été construite par China Railway Corporation à un coût de 3,5 milliards de dollars.

Voici le résultat de 3 ans de construction continue et 3,5 milliards de dollars d’investissement. Un train qui traverse le pays pour les passagers et les marchandises. Ce train a pour objectif de relier le centre de l’Éthiopie à la frontière de Djibouti. Il s’agit de la ligne de chemin de fer à écartement standard la plus avancée d’Afrique de l’Est. Ce projet considéré comme un événement qui changera la donne en Éthiopie.

Cet article Mise en service du train Éthiopie-Djibouti en Octobre est apparu en premier sur Carnet de Bord.

Djibouti vient d’adhérer à la Banque africaine d’import-export (Afreximbank). L’accord d’adhésion a été signé, le lundi 5 septembre 2016, dans la capitale djiboutienne par le ministre de l’Economie et des Finances du pays, Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh, lors d’une visite de travail du président de l’institution financière, Benedict Okey Oramah.

Avant de parapher le document d’adhésion, M. Oramah a été reçu par le président du Djibouti, Ismail Omar Guelleh.

Le communiqué officiel publié à l’issue de cette rencontre, indique que « les deux parties ont échangé sur le rôle clé que joue le financement de projets divers et variés dans le développement des pays du continent, notamment à travers la création d’opportunités d’affaires et d’emplois », rapporte Xinhua.

Afreximbank a été créée en 1993, à l’initiative de la Banque africaine de développement (BAD) pour financer et promouvoir le commerce intra et extra-africain. Elle compte, à ce jour, plus de 40 pays membres et a son siège au Caire, en Egypte.

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Le spécialiste suisse des matériaux de construction Sika a annoncé mardi dans un communiqué, l’ouverture de deux nouvelles succursales au Cameroun et à Djibouti, portant ainsi à 18, le nombre de ses filiales en Afrique. 

Au Cameroun, «la nouvelle représentation aura pour mission de distribuer des adjuvants pour béton et mortier dans tout le pays et de continuer ainsi à accroître la part de marché de Sika sur le  marché florissant du bâtiment au Cameroun», indique le communiqué. Ses équipes assureront directement la commercialisation de ses produits pour lesquels la société avait recours à des distributeurs locaux depuis dix ans.

Avec la succursale de Djibouti, le groupe suisse Sika ambitionne non seulement de gagner des parts du marché local, mais aussi et surtout d’accéder à l’immense marché limitrophe de l’Ethiopie. «Outre son marché local, Djibouti est un endroit idéal pour accéder au marché éthiopien voisin, qui est l’un des plus importants en Afrique», précise le groupe dans son communiqué.

Basé à Baar dans le nord de la Suisse, le groupe Sika qui est présent depuis 1947 en Afrique, fabrique et distribue des matériaux de collage et d’isolation et d’imperméabilisation destinés à la construction et au bâtiment et à l’industrie automobile.

En 2015, l’entreprise a inauguré des unités de production au Nigeria et en Côte d’Ivoire. Elle a  augmenté ses ventes dans le continent de +22% et comptait 688 salariés sur un total de 17.300 à travers le monde. Le groupe comptabilise 5 milliard d’euros de vente en 2015 à travers le monde.

L’Afrique a bénéficié des apports du géant suisse dans plusieurs projets d’infrastructures phares, tels le Grand théâtre de Rabat, capitale du Maroc, le projet de train rapide du Gautrain en Afrique du Sud et le pont Henri Konan Bédié d’Abidjan en Côte d’Ivoire.

Cet article BTP : Le groupe suisse Sika s’implante au Cameroun et à Djibouti est apparu en premier sur Carnet de Bord.

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Les jobs sont limités, spécifiques et quelque chose qui ‘nous arrive’. Faire un job nous met sur la défensive, cela limite notre pensée. Le but est d’en faire juste assez, ne pas se mettre dans les ennuis, respecter des spécifications. Dans le doute, choisir le déni.

Les projets sont ouverts, choisis et ils sont nôtres. Travailler sur un projet ouvre la porte du possible. Les projets sont à propos du mieux, de nouvelles frontières, de réaliser des changements. Dans le doute, oser.

Les jobs demandent des réunions et le mot clé est ‘plus tard’. Les projets encouragent ‘maintenant’.

Vous pouvez être payés pour un job (ou un projet). Ou pas. La paie n’est pas le sujet, l’approche l’est.

Certaines personnes n’ont pas de projet, seulement un job. C’est un choix et c’est dommage.

Certaines personnes travaillent pour transformer leur projet en travail, obtenant ainsi le pire des deux.

Si vous n’avez jamais eu que des jobs (une tendance encouragée dès les classes primaires), il est difficile de voir juste combien il est facile de transformer votre travail en projet.

Source

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As with any project, there is a natural ebb and flow.  A natural rhythm.  What I find interesting is that the rhythm seems to settle into what I call the Rule of 18 Months.  The rule states that:

A disproportionate large number of projects are cancelled by management at 18 months.

Let’s not forget that many areas have a natural rhythm.  One example is technology.  The most famous technology rhythm is Moore’s Law which predicts the growth in the number of transistors per chip will double every twenty four months.  Other technology laws that have a natural rhythm includes Kydler’s Law for disk storage (~12 months) and Haitz’s Law for the output from LED’s (~18 months).

Why is there a Rule of 18 Months for projects?  Is there some natural law at work?  In a simple answer – yes.  Human nature.

Looking back on the projects I’ve managed in my career, the 18 month cycle of cancelling projects reappears across industries, context, technology, size of organization and nationalities.  The rule seems universal.  Why?  Eighteen is the maximum number of months that management can suffer pain.  The pain is the repeated re-justification a project goes through while waiting for the benefit.

Why is it 18 and not 12 or 24?  Think about a given project.  Most projects start mid-year with funding and resources scraped together by management based on the potential merit and impact.  When the next full budget cycle comes around, the project is well underway and the funding is all but assured given that it’s been less than a year and no one expects the project to have impact – yet.  The result is that resources are kept in place and the project keeps going.

The second cycle is a different issue.  When the budget cycle comes around, there are questions raised about the project:  Is this project still important?  Are there more important projects we should be funding instead? Are we making the progress we should?

Why the questions? Because everyone in the management chain has to re-justify the project for yet another year of funding.  It’s this second round that causes all of the angst.  The result is that management will trade off whether to fight for another year of funding or to simply let the project die and avoid the pain.  As we can all appreciate, avoiding pain is a natural human reaction.

If management could see the value (something that justifies the pain), approving the project to continue would not be an issue.  Where most project teams get themselves into trouble is they don’t grasp this pain avoidance reaction from management.  In their minds, management should just get it and trust the team.  The result is a large percentage of projects are killed at 18 months because the value has not been shown.

Wait you say.  We had an agreement that this would be a multi-year project and the benefit would come at the end.  Isn’t this proof that the Rule of 18 Months doesn’t apply?  No.  If you truly believe that you can avoid the issue by getting an upfront agreement, then you don’t understand human nature.  In the event that your project does make it past the 18 month mark, the pain grows with each subsequent cycle which means you need to show ever increasing value and impact to keep it going.  The pain doesn’t go away.  It actually increases.

It’s not management’s fault.  It’s the project team’s fault for failing to understand management’s desire to avoid pain.  How does a team avoid the rule?  By following a few simple steps:

1) Understand your organization (or your customer’s) cycle to ensure you understand the timing.  When are budgets and/or strategies locked each year?

2) Define your project scope and deliverables to ensure you deliver impact/value before the rule gets applied.

3) For projects that extend beyond 18 months, break them down and make each part a distinct project.  Why?  To dodge the escalating pain avoidance problem.  Each project resets the clock.

In my experience, I’ve seen the rule applied to projects that should have been killed at the beginning and to those that should never have been killed.  This appearance of random decision making from management can be disruptive and demoralizing to an organization.

If you’re in management, look yourself in the mirror and understand the role human nature is playing in your decision-making to kill projects.  Help your teams understand.

If you are leading a project, use the simple project management strategies to avoid what in the past you had attributed as the whims of management.

By understanding the Rule of 18 Months, you can ensure that your projects will have the impact you intend.

Good luck!

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Djibouti is focusing on infrastructure improvements and a gradual diversification of its economy, both of which will require considerable foreign investment over the coming years, as well as a careful balancing of the state budget.

Transport: Connecting The Region

More than $14bn worth of new airports, pipelines, port facilities, roads and railways are under construction.

Energy: Sustaining Production

Electricity consumption has increased by some 75% in the past 10 years. A series of geothermal, solar and wind energy projects are under way to increase electricification nationwide.

Telecoms: Going Digital

In the fourth quarter of 2015, 314,350 people made use of mobile services, up from 285,904 one year earlier.

ICT: Getting Online

Over the past two years, more than $100m has been invested in gateway connections, with the country now linked to six submarine data cables.

Source

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CMA CGM a ajouté depuis le 18 mars 2016 une es­cale du service MEX1 qui relie l’Asie du Sud et l’Eu­rope. Djibouti sera désormais relié en direct à Ho Chi Minh (Viêt Nam) et Qingdao (Chine). Le hub de la mer Rouge est aussi directement relié à Malte, hub du groupe en Méditer­ranée.

Au final, ce seront 12 na­vi­res de 9 400 EVP à 11 400 EVP qui assureront la route suivante : Valence, Bar­celone, Fos-sur-Mer, Malte, Damiette, Bey­routh, Jeddah, Jebel Ali, Port Kelang, Xiamen, Qingdao, Shanghaï, Ningbo, Nansha, Yantian, Ho Chi Minh, Port Kelang, Djibouti, Malte et Valence.

Nouvelle alternative

Par ailleurs, le service REX2 reliant l’Extrême-Orient à la mer Rouge touche Djibouti depuis le 15 mars. Il constituera une nouvelle alternative pour l’exportation de graines de sésame d’Éthiopie vers l’Asie.

Le service REX2 touche les ports de Shanghai, Ningbo, Kaosiung, Shekou, Singapour, Jeddah, Ain Sukhna, Aqaba, Jeddah, Dji­bouti, Port Kelang, Singapour et Shanghai.

Pour relier le port de Djibouti aux marchés éthiopiens, CMA CGM développe une offre intermodale « en partenariat avec les acteurs les plus fiables du marché ». Elles relieront le port aux villes de Addis-Abeba, Mekele, Nefas Mew­cha, Gibe, Shashemene et Jinga.

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AT 2pm in the tiny African state of Djibouti everything stops. As the sun burns high in the sky people retreat to their homes, save for a few men lying in the shade of colonial-era walkways, chewing qat leaves that bring on a hazy high. In the soporific heat you would be forgiven for thinking that time had forgotten the New Jersey-sized nation. Yet its quiet stability within the volatile Horn of Africa has made the country of just 875,000 people a hub for the world’s superpowers.

The stars and stripes flutters alongside the runway where military and passenger planes touch down: Camp Lemmonier, America’s only permanent military base in Africa, hosts 4,500 troops and contractors who conduct missions against al-Qaeda in Yemen and al-Shabab in Somalia. The outpost, leased for $60m a year, shares an airstrip with the international airport, although its drones now fly from a desert airfield eight miles away after one crashed in a residential area in 2011.

Djibouti also hosts France’s largest military presence abroad (it still has an agreement to defend its former colony); Japan’s only foreign base anywhere; and Spanish and German soldiers from the EU’s anti-piracy force, who are billeted at the fancy Kempinski and Sheraton hotels. The Saudis and Indians are also rumoured to be interested in establishing outposts, as are the Russians.

Meanwhile, China is building its first overseas base anywhere in the world in Djibouti, for which it will pay a more modest $20m in rent annually. It is supposedly nothing more than a logistics hub for anti-piracy operations and evacuating citizens from hotspots like Yemen, just 20 miles away across the Bab el-Mandib strait. Some Western officials fear that China may have bigger plans, however. It might in the future be awkward to have countries that do not always see eye-to-eye running military operations out of the same crowded space.

The tiny desert state wants to be more than a superpowers’ playground, though; it has ambitions to become a Dubai or Singapore at the gateway of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. “We don’t have anything else but location,” says Robleh Djama Ali, the head of business development at the Djibouti Ports and Free Zone Authority. The country’s lack of natural resources may be coincidental, but its fortuitous geography, wedged between Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, is no accident. France wanted a port to rival Aden, Britain’s colony on the other side of the Red Sea. It has been desirable more recently too. The terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 brought the American military. Somali pirates brought EU soldiers. The Ethiopia-Eritrea war from 1998 to 2000 robbed Ethiopia of access to its smaller neighbour’s ports. Now 90% of Ethiopia’s imports come through Djibouti, accounting for 90% of its ports’ traffic.

Ethiopia’s double-digit growth over the past decade has rubbed off on Djibouti. Around $9.5 billion of energy and infrastructure projects are under way, including four more ports, two new international airports and two pipelines, and a railway to Ethiopia (the last, ministers promise, is due to open within weeks). Another $9.7 billion of proposals are as yet unfunded. To put this in perspective, Djibouti’s GDP was just $1.6 billion in 2014.

China is the biggest investor, much of it via soft loans. Officials won’t say exactly how much they are in hock to the Chinese, but both the IMF and African Development Bank have warned about its public debt, which is projected to balloon from 60.5% of GDP in 2014 to 80% in 2017. The finance minister, Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh, isn’t concerned: “what we are getting from China is much more important than any other long-standing partner,” he says.

The boom has not benefited everyone. The ports account for a whopping 70% of GDP, but only provide a few thousand jobs. The UN puts unemployment at 60%, though Mr Dawaleh claims it is half that (Djibouti’s data are dodgy). Illiteracy runs at about 45%. The lack of employment is offset by traditional support systems; one worker can support an entire extended family. So the government can buy the loyalty of, say, 30 people by hiring a single bureaucrat.

Dissent still simmers. Opposition figures claim police killed 19 people at a religious celebration in December 2015 (the government says only seven died). A corruption case brought by the government against Abdourahman Boreh, a wealthy businessman who was President Ismael Omar Guelleh’s right-hand man until he questioned his plan to run for a third term in 2011, was thrown out by a British High Court at the start of March. The country is voting on April 8th, but the re-election of Mr Guelleh for his fourth presidential term is a foregone conclusion; the opposition, an unwieldy coalition of seven parties, is fielding two rival candidates.

Source : Economist

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