• You may have been consumed by the recent political drama in the East African country, but development seems to be a major priority for them. When it comes to infrastructural development, Ethiopia is one of the shining beacons in Africa.

    With rising transport problems becoming a menace, the Addis Ababa Transport Programs Coordination Council has started the construction of a modern auto bus station which will have the capacity to serve up to 80 000 people per day.

    The bar continues to be high for Ethiopia. Last year, it surpassed Kenya to become the region’s best performing economy. A shift in attention from Nairobi, Addis Ababa is fast becoming a technological hub in the region and attracting scores of investors.

    With China’s interests in Africa becoming more conspicuous than ever before, most of the infrastructural developments in Ethiopia have been conducted in partnership with the Asian giant. The modern auto bus station is being built under the facilitation of the Addis Ababa Transport Programs Coordination Council in collaboration with China. It is being built at Africa’s biggest market hub in Addis Ababa, which is called ‘Merkato’.

    With a project of such huge magnitude, the costs are also astronomical. The total costs of the auto bus station stands at $7.4 million. With operation projected to commence in October 2019, the project is now 17% underway.

    Ethiopia’s ambition has been untamed. Mid last year, Ethiopia introduced Africa’s first smart parking system. The smart parking system can accommodate up to 90 cars without consuming much space. Ethiopia introduced an electric railway which connects the country to Djibouti. The electric railway cut down a three day journey to 12 hours and runs for 750km.

    If one is to look at the political situation in Ethiopia and the progress it has made economically, it would seem that it is a system based on Deng Xiaoping’s China. A system where repression is employed, undermining democracy in the process, but where the economy grows exponentially. It looks as if Ethiopia may have followed the same route that China followed during the post-Mao era.

    The construction of the auto bus station will relieve the transportation problems in the country’s capital Addis Ababa. The auto bus station “has the capacity to offer services for up to 20 auto buses on underground and main road compounds,” according to the Ethiopian Herald.