DILI, (East Timor): East Timor inaugurated a new deepwater port Wednesday operated by a French conglomerate, in the largest ever single foreign investment on an infrastructure project in Southeast Asia’s youngest country.

The $490 million port at Tibar Bay near the capital Dili is expected to expand trade for East Timor, one of the poorest countries in the region.

“It was necessary for East Timor to be connected to the main shipping lines in Asia,” French transport giant Bollore’s director of ports Olivier de Noray told AFP.

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The port will be able to receive ships of more than 8,000 containers, he said, and vessels sailing from Singapore through the Indonesian archipelago to Australia will be able to call there.

East Timor, which gained independence from Indonesian occupation in 2002, already has a port in Dili but it is not deep enough to accommodate large container ships.’