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The 208-million-dollar (148 million euros) loan agreement was signed yesterday by the president of China’s Export/Import Bank, Li Ruogu, currently on a visit to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian News Agency
reported.
“The loan will be used to finance the expansion of Mugher Cement Enterprise and the construction of Fincha-Amerti-Neshe multi-purpose projects that include hydro-electric power generation and irrigation,” the agency said.
Ethiopia’s minister of finance, Sufian Ahmed, said the trade volume between the two countries had reached more than 500 million dollars since the China-Africa Cooperation Forum was hosted in 2000.
Official figures report a 60-percent increase in bilateral trade since 2006 in spite of a rebel attack on a Chinese oil venture in Ethiopia’s restive Ogaden region that killed 77 people last April, including nine Chinese.
China – the world’s fourth largest economy – is often accused of pursuing economic policies in Africa to feed its energy-hungry industry at the expense of human rights and political considerations.
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