Dubai’s port operator DP World has signed an MoU with Senegal to build and develop a logistics free zone outside the capital city of Dakar.

The free zone will be developed near the new Blaise Diagne International Airport, not far from the DP World Dakar Terminal in the outskirts of the city, state news agency WAM reported.

The new free zone will complement the port, which is touted as West Africa’s largest container terminal after a new terminal was built in the facility in November 2011, doubling capacity to over 600,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).

The agreement to build the free zone was signed by Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, DP World chairman and chairman of the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCFC), in the presence of Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Foreign Minister, and Mankeur Ndiaye, Senegal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The investment is in line with the UAE’s aim to support growth and development in friendly countries like Senegal, bin Sulayem said. “It is our long-standing commitment at DP World… to help these countries build necessary infrastructure for trade and economic development, especially in the port industry where DP World is a global leader with an expanding portfolio of 65 terminals currently operated worldwide.”