The Government of Italy expressed its interest to help Ethiopia and Eritrea link via railway network.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who was on official visit to Italy, has discussed with his Italian counterpart, Giuseppe Conte, in Rome on Monday.
In a joint press conference after the meeting, PM Giuseppe Conte expressed his government’s interest to cover the feasibility study cost for the railway project that links Addis Ababa with the port city of Massawa, Eritrea.
Commenting on Italy’s support, Prime Minister Abiy expressed his gratitude for the government of Italy.
/All Afrika/
Excellent news!!! To me anything that involves technology is nothing but sweet music to my ears. If we look at the characteristics of the Horn of Africa the predominant economy is pretty much common to all. They share a lot of common way of making a living. If one doesn’t have one necessity the other one has it. They have been making contacts with each other for thousands of years. Their main problem for more cohesion has been the topography of their homelands that making constant and more frequent contacts very taxing. Our merchants have in history traveled throughout the region buying and selling goods needed for sustainable presence. In our time, the topography has been a hindrance to build modern roads due to cost being prohibitive. I thing the engineers in charge in the current regime seem to be learning from their recent experience about major infrastructure projects like this one. Due to its past presence in both countries it seems natural and easier for a developed nation like Italy to do the feasibility study. Feasibility study is not dirt cheap. Apparently this one involves very rugged terrain and the cost of the study itself could run into a few millions. And I wouldn’t be surprised if such study and detailed survey had already been done by Mussolini’s engineers in the 1930’s. So Italy’s involvement makes a lot of sense to me. The people of that region did not need to have gone thru destructive civil wars during their recent history. It was just senseless. Leaving the politics phase aside, economic integration in the only way out of abject poverty that has been grinding those people. The leaders of each of those countries need to grow up and work days in and days out toward such common market economy(economic integration). They can draw valuable lesson from the recent history of post WWII European and Southeast Asian countries. Efficient and cost effective infrastructure facilitates exchange of goods and skills that the region desperately needs. They need to faithfully work toward that goal. Narrow-mindedness of leaders has not cut the mustard for the citizens of those countries. The ‘cribs’ and ‘blood’ mentality among the leaders seems to be waning. That is encouraging. Again, this story is music to my ears. Godspeed!!!!