By Goth Mohamed Goth
H.E President Ahmed Mohamed Mahmoud Silanyo today presided over the ground breaking ceremony for a new road 35KM tarmac road held in the town of Hamaas which will link the town of Lafrugu-Berbera –Sheik in Sahil region which once completed will ease and reduced time travel into major towns connected by the road.
President Silanyo speaking at the function said, “On behalf of the people of Somaliland, I would like to thank our SDF partners for their generosity which is aimed at spur economic growth in the areas traversed by the road project hence reducing the poverty levels of the roadside communities.
“Roads are an integral part of the transport system; our road network should be efficient in order to maximize economic and social benefits but most of all they play a significant role in achieving national development and contributing to the overall performance and social functioning of communities in the country”, President Silanyo said.
President Silanyo added his government is committed to improving the living conditions of Somaliland citizens through better access to both basic physical, social services, health care, jobs and education and that he was glad to see the cohesion between government and citizens is at an all-time high.
Somaliland Minister of National Planning Dr. Sacad Ali Shire speaking at venue said, “The Somaliland Special Agreement (SSA) promotes the Somaliland Development Fund (SDF) established by the Danish and UK governments in 2012 as a means to ensure mutual accountability while establishing mechanisms for the Somaliland government to better lead their development process. The SDF is now fully operational, and as the preferred funding mechanism, Somaliland will encourage donors to join and scale up their funding of the SDF.
Mr. Michael Poulsen DANIDAS country representative was among the dignitaries speaking at the venue said “The SDF is a partnership made up by three countries Denmark, UK and The government of Somaliland, and is also part of the Somaliland special arrangement deal.
“The fund has proven to be successful and more countries are beginning to support the fund such as the Netherlands, Norway and the EU is just around the corner to join soon. We look forward to making more friends in the future as we initiate more projects across the country” , Mr. Michael Poulsen stated.
Mr. Hassan Ali Osman, the head of Somaliland road authority speaking at the venue touched on the importance of the road project in which he began by saying, “The nation road network is estimated to be 770KM of paved roads and approximately 6,880KM of unpaved rough roads. The majority of these roads are considered to be in a state of despair due to lack of maintenance and considering 99% of the movements of people and goods depends on these roads as there lifeline then surely something must be done to rehabilitate them.
The Minister in charge of Presidential affairs Hon Hirsi Ali Haji Hassan was also among the speakers at the groundbreaking ceremony here is what he had to say, “Somaliland governments plans to initiated similar development projects aimed at upgrading infrastructure in the country such as the construction of tarmac roads have been constructed in a very few years to connect rural and village communities to urban cities.