The Chinese-built Addis Ababa-Djibouti Standard Gauge Railway has won acclaim for facilitating regional integration and prosperity.
During a railway infrastructure-themed seminar on Monday here, participants, including officials and independent experts, discussed how Africa's first fully electrified trans-boundary railway contributed to regional integration and the betterment of communities along the way.
The 752-km transnational railway, as a flagship project in the Belt and Road cooperation, demonstrated the aspirations of African countries to spur continental free trade by augmenting intra-Africa infrastructure connectivity, said Dagmawit Moges, Ethiopia's minister of transport and logistics.
Ethiopia's State Minister of Finance Semereta Sewasew stressed China's role in supporting African countries' development aspiration on win-win modalities.
Zhao Zhiyuan, Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia, also echoed Moges' comments, stressing that the Addis Ababa-Djibouti rail line is a lifeline to landlocked Ethiopia.
According to figures from the joint venture, in 2021, the railway's monthly transport revenue exceeded 9 million and 10 million U.S. dollars in October and November respectively, the best result since 2018. The transport revenue in 2021 is 37.4 percent higher than in 2020.
The railway has also created numerous job opportunities for locals, with more than 4,000 locals employed so far, which accounts for over 90 percent of the total staff.
Produced by Xinhua Global Service
