The heads of agreement signed with the Chinese authorities in July 2012 is starting to have concrete results. The Sinopec group is planning to build a 300 MW geothermal power station in the Lake Assal region, while Huawei Technologies is to work on improving bandwidth in Djibouti. For its part, China Merchants Holdings, a conglomerate based in Hong Kong, initialled an agreement on 29 December to take a 23.5% stake in the new company Port de Djibouti SA (PDSA) for $185 million. PDSA will replace the current public organisation Port Autonome International de Djibouti (PAID) and will be the owner of the Port of Djibouti Terminal, 66.66% of the capital of Doraleh Container Terminal SA and 23.1% of Djibouti Dry Port FZCO which is developing and operating the free zone.

Another Chinese company, Baoye Hubei Construction Group, is building the new port at Tadjourah which will notably be used to export the potash that will be extracted in Ethiopia by the Canadian company Allana Potash Corp.