As recently reported in the South China Morning Post, Wen said the mistakes of that railway project has cost China’s Sinosure close to $1 billion in losses. He also is reported to have stated: “Ethiopia’s planning capabilities are lacking, but even with the help of Sinosure and the lending Chinese bank it was still insufficient.”The 756-km Addis-Djibouti railway, Africa’s first cross-country electric railway, was built by China Railway Engineering and Construction Corporation and the China Railway Group and backed by $3.3 billion of loans from the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim). But the financing concerns, and apparently losses, on this railway project are highly indicative of the vital need for proper project planning and preparation, and evaluation for economically viable projects. But that is estimated to be a $13 billion project. Further useless information for railway nerds is that some 50 years ago the country with the largest railway network in Africa was……Sudan!

Source: Ethiopian News October 31, 2018 19:30 UTC