Ethiopia: China provides loan for expressway

  1. Posted on Wednesday 11 November 2009 - 15:48
    Yohanes
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    Andualem Sisay, AfricaNews reporter in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
    The state owned financing firm, China Exim Bank, has approved a $349 million loan for Ethiopia's new expressway project. Upon completion the highway would be the first of its kind in Ethiopia - 12 meter width and eight lanes. It is expected to ease traffic from Addis Ababa to Adama - the country's major import line.
    Great B east Road b
    The two countries signed the loan agreement over the weekend for construction of the 79 km Addis Ababa-Adama express highway. President of China Exim Bank, Li Ruogu and State Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Ahmed Shide signed the agreement.

    The highway will be constructed by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and the construction begins 2010 and expected to end 2014. As a result of the soft loan the Chinese construction firm had the contract without bidding.

    Ahmed said the loan significantly contributes in the overall development of the country. Li Ruogu on his part indicated that economic cooperation between the two countries will continue to be strengthened.

    China's annual trade with Africa soared from $2 billion in 1999 to an astonishing $107 billion last year, allowing China for the first time to rival the United States as the continent's biggest trading partner.

    In 2007, Ethiopia received a total of $708 million in development loans from Beijing. In the same year, ZTE Corp, one of China's biggest telecoms equipment providers, signed a $1.5 billion loan deal with Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) in November 2007 for the upgrading of its telephone network.

    In mid-July this year, Ethiopia has also signed a 1.9 billion euro (2.67 billion USD) deal with China to construct two hydroelectric dams with a capacity of more than 2,000 megawatts.

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