Business
China’s influence in Africa continues: Ethiopia and China sign railway deal
The Horn of Africa country has posted high economic growth rates over the past five years and hopes to exploit growing business ties with China, India and Turkey to boost its expanding economy.
Under a five-year development plan launched last year, Ethiopia aims to boost infrastructure with a plan to increase power production from 2,000MW to 10,000MW and ambitions for 2,600 kilometres of railway lines by 2015.
“We have called on companies from the BRIC countries to be involved in the other projects. They have shown a considerable interest to get into tenders,” Getachew said.
Getachew said Ethiopia will use some of its own funds to cover costs of the projects alongside loans secured from banks.
Ethiopia is looking for long-term loans that could either be on preferential or commercial terms, he said.
It also plans to construct an inter-city light rail system in Addis Ababa.
