| Ethiopia and China has long years of relations.The two countries had officially established diplomatic relation in 1971.Following the political leadership change in Ethiopia in 1991,the two countries have become more close to each other;basically in the economic cooperation sphere.Since 1991 and especially after mid 2000s,China’s engagement in Ethiopia has been evident,particularly in the Road and Railway construction investment sector.Today,China is the key development partner to Ethiopia.This study attempted to analyze the socio-economic impact of China’s Road-Railway construction investment in Ethiopia.It focuses on identifying the detail Road-Railway construction projects undertaken by Chinese firms in Ethiopia as well as the socio-economic impacts of these investments in the country.It also covers the mega Highways and Railways which are ongoing and planned to connect Ethiopia with its neighboring countries and beyond.During the research,the methods employed were qualitative(non-statistical analysis of economic cooperation and investment)and quantitative(statistical analysis)approaches.These information and data were triangulated so as to avoid bias and strength the findings of the thesis.The main finding of the study is that,the China’s Road-Railway mega construction investment in Ethiopia has an overall positive impact for the socio-economic development of Ethiopia despite some drawbacks.The main productive impacts include:expansion of employment opportunities and new jobs,improvement of incomes of the local communities and change in a way of life;enhancement of agricultural productivity and trade potential;progress in transport system;improvement in regional economic integration;growth of tourism;expansion of new township;improvement in social integration,stability and social services.On the other hand,there are some drawbacks of these investments,which mainly include:negative effect on local companies;low quality construction equipment;traffic accidents and hazards;resettlement and dislocation;increase in incidence of social diseases;and adverse environmental impacts.Besides,there are concerns over the China’s deep involvement in Ethiopia.The criticism revolves around the violation and suppression of the Ethiopian peoples and most ethnic groups by the incumbent TPLF-led FDRE regime;that is claimed to be backed by the Beijing’s huge supports.Having described the very general review about the study in the preceding page,the briefs of Each Chapters are pointed out here as follow.The First Chapter,Introduction,starts with assessing about the general Background on historical,political and economic relations between Ethiopia and China.Other sub-sections of the Introduction are respectively:the research Question;Hypothesis;Objectives of the research;Significance of the research;research Design and Methodology,and the Structure of the research.Essentially here in this Chapter,the basic essence or the argument of the research is stated as Hypothesis which derives from the research Question.That is to say China’s Road-Railway investment in Ethiopia has contributed for Ethiopia’s economic growth and social development in:generating employment opportunity and new job;alleviating poverty and human livelihood improvement;technology transfer as well as skill transfer;social stability and service,and domestic-regional economic and social integration.The research has objective of examining the Chinese Road-Railway investment activities of China in Ethiopia;analyzing the socio-economic impact of the China’s Road-Railway investment activities;and evaluating the general performance of Chinese Road-Railway investment in Ethiopia.The Research used qualitative and quantitative approaches in its design,with data sources of primarily secondary data.The next Chapter,the Second Chapter,is about analyzing the basic socio-economic Conceptual Frameworks that were used as the basis for the analysis of the research.These selective Conceptual Frameworks include:Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Analysis;the issues of National Interest;Development and Development Model;Development and Development Indicator;Foreign Investment;and Foreign Direct Investment,including Chinese Investment Model.Details on the top of the concepts and assumptions of these frameworks have been attempted to be comprehended.Under the Third Chapter,the Economic Cooperation between Ethiopia and China is evaluated:looking in to the Analysis of the major Chinese Road-Railway Construction Investments in Ethiopia since 1991 period.The overview of bilateral relations between the two countries regarding the Economic,Trade,Investment and other related economic cooperation aspects were assessed.With regard to China’s Road Construction Investment in Ethiopia,China has provided technical and financial supports to Ethiopia for major Road construction,rehabilitation and upgrading and for road and bridge construction projects.And since recently,in Railway sector too,China has been involved for most of Ethiopia’s Railway construction projects.The Fourth Chapter,which is the main part of the study,focuses on analyzing the Impact of China’s Construction Investment in Road-Railway sector in Ethiopia after the period of 1991.In this Chapter,the Socio-Economic impacts of the China’s Road-Railway investment in Ethiopia are evaluated and the overall views regarding the China’s engagement in Ethiopia are also assessed.Accordingly,with the huge Chinese economic engagement in Ethiopia:particularly the Chinese construction firms in Ethiopia have made contributions to the socio-economic development of the country:to its national economy as well as to the day-to-day livelihoods of ordinary citizens.Almost 70 percent of the mega Highways and Railway constructions in Ethiopia are undertaken by Chinese companies.Among other positive impacts,these projects have created thousands of job opportunities to the local communities(mainly to the Youth,Women,and Rural)and promoting poverty alleviation.Besides,the projects have facilitated Ethiopia’s domestic-international trade linkage with its neighbors and beyond in the region of Horn of Africa and East Africa at large.Finally in the Fifth Chapter,the last Chapter of the research,the research closes up with Conclusion and Recommendations.Here in this Chapter,summing up of the research in the Conclusion part,just about seven major suggestions forwarded as Recommendations.Therefore,this study is analyzed by organizing it into Five Chapters as already abovementioned. |
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