Ethiopia signs Djibouti railway deal with China
Tigrai Online
Dec. 17 2011
Ethiopia signed an agreement with a Chinese state-run firm to build the final section of a railway line that will link its capital Addis Ababa to the tiny Red Sea state of Djibouti, an official said.
The deal signed late on Friday with the ChinaCivil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) covers a 339-kilometre line that will join another project to connect the capital with Djibouti.
This agreement is a contract to construct between Mieso, which is half way from Addis Ababa, to the Djibouti border," Getachew Betru, general manager of the Ethiopian Railways Corporation, told Reuters.
Ethiopia and Djibouti's economies are reliant on each other with about 70 percent of all trade through Djibouti's port coming from its land-locked neighour.
CCECC and China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC) have won tenders for other sections of the 656-kilometre build. Those companies have brokered loans for Ethiopia from China's EXIM Bank, Development Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Getachew said.
Ethiopia, which aims to construct 5,000 kilometres of railway lines in the huge country by 2020, says companies from BRIC nations have shown an interest in other projects.