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Djibouti’s status as the only country in Africa where China has an overseas military base appears to have brought other benefits.
Massive Chinese ICT investment in Djibouti has helped the country become the region’s digital hub, overtaking economic powerhouses Ethiopia and Kenya. A new World Bank report cites a study by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that shows Djibouti had the highest internet connectivity in the region at the end of last year, with 69 percent of the population online.
Djibouti, with a population of about 1,1 million, reported connectivity above the global average of 65 percent—and well ahead of Kenya’s 29 percent and Ethiopia’s 17 percent. Much of Djibouti’s ICT infrastructure, the report notes, has been built by China.
“China plays a key role in financing communications infrastructure in Djibouti, with Djibouti Telecom partnering with Chinese firms such as Huawei,” the World Bank report said.
Huawei is at the forefront of some of the transformative technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, such as 5G and artificial intelligence, both of which are proving critical in modern warfare.
The World Bank study, entitled “Leveraging Private Sector Investment in Digital Communications Infrastructure in Eastern Africa”, looked at 11 countries in Eastern Africa to assess their readiness to attract foreign investment.
Djibouti, strategically located at the junction of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Eden and the Indian Ocean on the Europe-Asia maritime route, is becoming a “theatre of great power competition” between China and the United States, two of the most powerful nations. The US, whose military base is about 10 kilometres from China’s, has also pumped money into Djibouti’s digital communications infrastructure.
The World Bank report notes that Djibouti Telecom, the state-owned service provider, has a significant joint venture with BringCom, a US-based communications technology provider. – The East African
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