ADDIS ABABA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in Ethiopia's capital of Addis Ababa have concluded a 29.17 million U.S. dollars' worth of transportation modernization agreements with two Chinese firms, state media outlet Ethiopia Press Agency (EPA) reported Tuesday.
"The first agreement worth 15 million U.S. dollars will see the Addis Ababa city administration purchase 110 buses from China's leading bus maker, Yutong in an eight months' period," the EPA reported. "The second agreement, a 14.17 million U.S. dollars scheme to modernize the city's public bus transportation system with advanced digital information devices, was signed between the Addis Ababa city administration and Hisense TransTech Co., Ltd."
Ethiopia hopes the two transportation modernization agreements will bring about fundamental transport logistics improvement in the national capital, through the integration of state-of-the-art information communication technology (ICT) systems.
Earlier this month, Ethiopia's national air carrier, Ethiopian Airlines (ET) announced it has partnered with Air Djibouti and International Djibouti Industrial Park Operation (IDIPO) to commence sea-air multimodal transportation, disclosing their agreement will see cargo being transported from Chinese destinations to Djibouti Free Zone by sea and then uplifted by air from Djibouti International Airport.
The Ethiopian government has identified the transport and logistics sector as a game changer to maintain the East African country's economic growth trajectory. It has also recently developed a 10-year transport sector development plan, which envisages among many things construction of many road and rail projects. ■