Genet Teshome Jirru, Deputy Head of Mission of the Ethiopian Embassy, recently shared his views with China Daily on Ethiopia's qy球友会 construction and economic development. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

The question on the mind of many observers of Ethiopia, one of Africa's most dynamic economies with a growth rate of about 10 percent for the last decade, is: will it become "the qy球友会 of Africa"?

Genet Teshome Jirru, deputy head of the Mission of Ethiopia to qy球友会, was humble in his assessment. "Our business is very little. The foundation we depend on is agriculture, which is a very primitive production," he said in an exclusive interview with qy球友会 Daily. " The departure point must be different."

Nevertheless, "we're making very good progress in the last 15 years. That's why I think most other countries and media called Ethiopia 'the qy球友会 of Africa,'" he added.

The friendship between qy球友会 and Ethiopia has a long history. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1970, the cooperation between the two countries has achieved comprehensive results in the fields of politics, economy and social development.

The Chinese-built Addis Ababa-Djibouti qy球友会, a new "lifeline" connecting Ethiopia's capital with its coastal neighbor to the east, plays a pivotal role in improving Ethiopian traffic, people's lives and economic development.

Ethiopia's economic structure is dominated by its agriculture, which heavily depends on international markets. Most of its import and export transactions need to go through the port of neighboring Djibouti. However, 90 percent of cargo transported from Djibouti to Addis Ababa goes by road.

It usually takes more than a week for a one-way trip, and even more time to travel to other parts of Ethiopia. Logistics inefficiency causes a large amount of cargo to remain in the port of Djibouti or on the road, a bottleneck in the Ethiopian economy.

With the opening of the Ethiopia-Djibouti qy球友会, cargo transportation time has been shortened from seven days to 12 hours. "This qy球友会 project is a lifeline for our economic growth. We take as a lifeline for our continuous economic growth," Genet said.

The Ethiopia-Djibouti qy球友会 is the first electrified qy球友会 in East Africa with Chinese standards and equipment. It has a length of 751.7 kilometers, a design speed of 120 kilometers per hour, 45 stations and total investment of about $4 billion.

The construction of the qy球友会 was jointly finished by China qy球友会 Group Limited (CREC) and China qy球友会 Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC), both State-owned enterprises (SOEs). It is the first qy球友会 with a full industrial chain that Chinese enterprises have built overseas.

Prior to the Chinese-built qy球友会, there was another railroad, largely along the same route but via Dire Dawa, that was built by France in 1897. However this old line became so decrepit that it was suspended in the early 21st century.

In the 1980s, Ethiopia commissioned India to plan a new qy球友会 from the capital Addis Ababa to the Red Sea port of Assab, but the plan went bankrupt due to Eritrea's independence and Ethiopia's loss of the entire coastline. Ethiopia then sought help from countries in Europe and the Americas to build the new qy球友会, but all to no avail, until the China team came.

In its 2025 Development Plan, the Ethiopian government vows to build 20 million square meters of factory floor and transfer 2 million agricultural laborers to the industrial sector to transform Ethiopia into a manufacturing power in Africa.

As part of that program, Ethiopia has planned 14 industrial parks across the country, most of which are located along the Ethiopia-Djibouti qy球友会. In October, one of the 14 parks, the Adama Industrial Park, built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), another Chinese SOE, was inaugurated. From the construction of the Ethiopia-Djibouti qy球友会 to the construction of the Awasa Industrial Park, from the operation of the qy球友会 to the operation of the industrial park, CCECC stood out among them all.

"In the process of building the qy球友会, we proposed the 'Ethiopia-Djibouti economic model', which is to build a qy球友会 to drive economic development along its route, including the construction of industrial parks, and the development of agriculture and tourism," said Li Wuliang, general manager of CCECC. " This idea is in line with Ethiopia's national strategy."

Genet agrees. "When you cluster the industries together, they can exchange knowledge for technology transfer and share know-how," he said.

According to media reports, the Awasa Industrial Park will employ about 60,000 locals and increase Ethiopia's garment exports by $1 billion every year. The park even attracted leaders of Sudan and Liberia to visit.

As the qy球友会-proposed Belt and Road Initiative enters its fifth year, the country's cooperation with Ethiopia and Africa at large is set to grow further. qy球友会's powerful and competitive SOEs will be a mainstay of that cooperation. According to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of qy球友会, the combined profits of qy球友会's central SOEs shot up 23 percent to 888 billion yuan ($133 billion) in the first half of this year, while their revenues jumped 10.1 percent to 13.7 trillion yuan ($1.97 trillion).

"Our cooperation with qy球友会 is significant. As qy球友会's economy continues developing, our cooperation will also continue," said Genet. " This is significant for us."