Mawani to award 12 Saudi port development contracts next year
RIYADH, December 22, 2020
Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) has signed a 30-year-long build-operate and transfer (BOT) contract to develop the northern part of Jeddah Islamic Port, making it the largest container terminal in the kingdom, with investments worth SR6.6 billion ($1.75 billion).
In cooperation with the National Privatization Center and the Ministry of Transport, Mawani also aims to award 12 such BOT contracts to the private sector, reported the Saudi Gazette, citing a senior official.
Mawani President Engineer Saad Alkhalb said that the experiment of awarding the contracts on BOT basis was a successful one, as its productivity exceeded the expected rates by about 10 per cent during the six-month period following its operation.
The transcontinental shipping lines are direct services linking the Saudi ports in the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf with the region’s ports, including those in East Africa, Egypt and Jordan, and their goal is direct linkage, activation of trade and increased coastal transport, stated Alkhalb.
"During the past six months, these lines transported more than 250,000 containers, and Mawani aspires to double them to 500,000 containers in 2021, as well as to launch other services," he added.
