ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia's Minister of Transport and Logistics Dagmawit Moges has called on African countries to intensify the construction of standard gauge rail lines towards the success of continental free trade aspiration.
The Ethiopian transport and logistics minister, addressing a high-level railway infrastructure-themed seminar, said the Chinese-built Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway, Africa's first fully electrified trans-boundary railway, could be seen as a role model to Africa's aspiration of augmenting railway connectivity.
"One of the reasons Africa has lagged in development is because it's not connected. The African Union in its Agenda 2063 has identified potential corridors across North to South and West to East of the continent and planned to connect some of them via standard gauge railway lines," the Ethiopian minister said addressing the seminar on Monday.
"The objectives of the new African Continental Free Trade Area will not be achieved without the provision of reliable, inter-regional transport and logistics network," she added.
Noting that Ethiopia as a land-locked country accesses the international maritime trade through the seaports of neighboring countries, Moges emphasized that the historical Ethiopia-Djibouti trade corridor is the main gateway of Ethiopia with almost 90 percent of import and export passing through it.
"At this point in time we are harvesting the fruits of our four years of commercial operation of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway line," she added.
Moges said the Chinese-built 752-km transnational railway mutually benefited the two countries in promoting regional, economic and social integration while at the same time facilitating trade and industrial development and fostering employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for citizens of the two Horn of Africa countries.
She said in addition to improving the efficiency of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti standard gauge railway line, the East African country has planned envisioned to further boost its rail-connectivity over the coming years.
According to Moges, Ethiopia's 10-year perspective plan envisaged to expand the size of national railway network to 4,000-km by building additional cross-country railway lines to connect Africa's second-populous nation to alternative seaports.
"The implementation of this plan will tremendously boost the trade logistics of the country and the Horn of Africa as a region," she said.
According to a recent estimate by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Africa's rail network is inadequate, but implementing the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) and other planned projects will significantly increase its size, in which implementing planned projects will increase the network by almost 26,500 km.
The study conducted by experts in the Energy, Infrastructure and Services Section of UNECA to unpack AfCFTA investment opportunity in the transport sector estimated that AfCFTA requires 97,614 wagons for bulk cargo and 20,668 wagons for container cargo by 2030.
The Addis Ababa-Djibouti electrified railway, also known as the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway, was contracted by China Rail Engineering Corporation and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation. ■