ADDIS ABABA: China has already agreed to help revamp Ethiopia's railway system, but now the East African country is turning to Brazil, Russia and India to help finance the rail links after inking the deal with Beijing and Turkish companies last year for more rail routes across the country. According to the state railway company, Russia's government "may fund a 587-kilometer (365-mile) southern line that will eventually connect with a proposed port at Lamu on Kenya's northeastern coast," Ethiopian Railways Corp. General Manager Getachew Betru said in an April 26 interview, as reported by Bloomberg news agency. Experts on the ground have confirmed to Bikyanews.com that by bolstering the country's railway system it could help trigger an economic boom for the country that would allow people to travel easier throughout the country. Brazilian companies could build a 439-kilometer section of a route to oil-rich South Sudan and India is considering export financing for a line to a port in Djibouti, he said. “They want to come and invest in Ethiopia and get their return," the company said in the capital, Addis Ababa. Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populous nation, is building 4,744 kilometers of electrified railway lines at a cost of 110.8 billion birr ($5.9 billion) as it seeks to reduce road-transport costs constraining the continent's fastest growing non-oil producing economy over the past decade. Growth may slow to 6.5 percent this year and next, compared with average growth of 8.7 percent over the past five years, according to International Monetary Fund data. Ethiopian Railways plans to lay more than 2,000 kilometers of standard-gauge track during a five-year national growth plan that runs until mid-2015. China Civil Engineering Construction Corp. and China Railway Group Ltd. (390) are working on sections costing more than $1 billion each along Ethiopia's main 656- kilometer trade route from Addis Ababa to Djibouti. BN
