China to fund $300m industrial park in Adama, Ethiopia

Ethiopia and China are set to partner on a $300m industrial park in the city of Adama, 99km southeast of Addis Ababa.

The news was reported by the Xinhua agency, which quoted Liu Yu, economic and commercial counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia, as saying that construction could start before the end of the year.

According to Liu, 85% of the funding needed would be covered by soft loans from the Chinese government and the remainder come from the Ethiopian government.

Liu said: "The governments of China and Ethiopia have attached great importance to their cooperation in various fields including in construction of industrial parks, whereby they have achieved fruitful results."

The park, which will focus on equipment manufacturing, would be the second to be built in Adama with Chinese help. The first was built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation for $146m and opened in October last year.

The 100 ha project is expected to create 25,000 jobs and is part of Ethiopia’s grand plan to transform its largely agrarian economy into an industrialised one by 2025.

Image: Adama is a transport hub in central Ethiopia with a population of 220,000 (Joe Castleman/CC BY-SA 3.0)

Further reading:

• Turkish company plans €3bn industrial park in Ethiopia’s Tigray
• New industrial park to give ten-fold boost to Ethiopia’s textile output
• Ethiopia to build three industrial parks in drive to become manufacturing hub