US economist Jeffrey Sachs has praised cooperation with China for revitalizing Ethiopia's rural economy.
China has vast capacity to enable “Africa to have 7 to 10% economic growth per year by building up massive solar power, which is China’s specialty,” he said.
While he was in Ethiopia early this, he got a real taste of Ethiopia’s success attained through cooperation with China.
“China helped Ethiopia finance hydropower projects and it also helped Ethiopia build fast freight railway from Addis Ababa to Djibouti,” Sachs mentioned.
“I was visiting rural farmers in Ethiopia. They are growing avocados, which was unthinkable before. But now they are making money from sending fresh avocados to Dubai.”
The change to the farmers come due to such factors as access to electricity, the economist added. “Now they have electricity for greenhouses, for processing, for transport, for cooling for refrigeration. And they have a fast rail to get their perishable products to port Djibouti to reach the rich market across the Red Sea. That’s an example of development before your eyes.