ADDIS ABABA – The Addis Ababa corridor development project demonstrates Ethiopians’ capacity to achieve big visions with world-class quality, Economist Zemedeneh Negatu commented.
The transformation of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa in a span of just a few months is truly remarkable and manifests Ethiopians’ capacity to collaboratively deliver on big visions, on time with world-class quality, Global Chairman of Fairfax Africa Fund, Zemedeneh Negatu said.
Mentioning that he was mostly away from Addis for the past three months, Zemedeneh stated the infrastructural development that has been made in the aforesaid period in certain key parts of the capital is starting to reflect its status as a major cosmopolitan city.
“So, the last couple of days I drove around the city: Piassa, Arat Kilo, Bole to Meskel Square and Mexico to Sarbet,” he wrote on X, citing that the changes in these places are so dramatic that he hardly recognized most of them.
As a vibrant, successful, livable political capital city, which is also a big commercial hub for a country with over 200 billion USD economy, Zemedeneh indicated that Addis will continue to contribute significantly to Ethiopia’s economy, image and attracting high caliber talent and investments, similar to London or New York.
Addis Ababa also has a unique role in Africa for being the seat of the headquarters of the African Union and is amongst the five largest hosts of diplomatic missions in the world, he stated.
Zemedeneh noted that the redevelopment of the city reminds him of the redevelopment of Washington DC starting in the mid-1980s after Reagan and the Republicans won the Whitehouse and took control of Congress.
“Those of us who grew in the Washington area remember how rundown downtown DC was at the time,” he wrote.
But, starting with the Pennsylvania Avenue corridor redevelopment project (initially the area from the Whitehouse to Capitol Hill), the city progressively redeveloped to become one of the most beautiful, livable cities in the world today, he recalled.
It even changed from a one company town (government) to a hi-tech and corporate mecca in the VA and MD suburbs. “I think Addis could be on a similar trajectory,” the chairman penned.
“So, I congratulate key players who made the redevelopment a huge success: PM Abiy supported by Mayor Adanech and city and federal public servants, private home grown Ethiopian contractors and residents of Addis Abeba,” he added.
BY STAFF REPORTER
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 18 JULY 2024
