The Export-Import Bank of Korea (www.koreaexim.bo.kr Chairman Lee Duk-Hoon, “Korea Eximbank”) announced on May 23 that it signed a USD 100 million EDCF loan agreement with Ethiopia to fund the country’s Modjo-Hawassa Expressway Project.

* The Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) was established by the Korean government in 1987 to promote economic exchanges with the developing world and to assist developing countries in achieving industrialization and economic stability through the provision of long-term, low-interest credit. Korea Eximbank currently manages the fund as its trustee.

Executive Director Yim Seong-hyeog of Korea Eximbank’s EDCF Operations Group, during his visit to the Rwandan capital Kigali to attend the African Development Bank (AfDB)’s annual meeting in the city, met with Ethiopian Finance Minister Sufian Ahmed and signed the loan agreement for the project on May 22.

The ‘Etiophia Modjo-Hawassa Expressway Project' is aimed at building a 210-kilometer quadruple line expressway connecting Modjo, a town located 70 kilometers to the south of the capital of Etiophia Addis Ababa, and Hawassa, located in the southwestern region.

EDCF is to co-finance the 93km Modjo-Zeway section of the project with AfDB.

To overcome the disadvantage of being a land-locked state, Ethiopia is seeking to expand its logistics infrastructure by connecting its roads to the ports of neighboring countries such as Kenya.

Once completed, the Modjo-Hawassa expressway will connect the ‘Mombasa-Nairobi-Addis Ababa Road Corridor Project’* to Kenya’s Mombasa Port, which would greatly increase the movement of goods between the two neighboring countries.

* The ‘Mombasa-Nairobi-Addis Ababa Road Corridor Project’ is a project led by AfDB to construct a connecting road extending 1,004 km between Kenya and Ethiopia. AfDB has lent USD 750 million of the total project cost of USD 850 million to the Kenyan and Ethiopian governments over the three stages of the project implemented thus far.

Executive Director Yim remarked after the signing ceremony that he was “very pleased to see EDCF supporting the highest-priority project in the five-year development plan of Ethiopia, a long-standing ally that came to our defense during the Korean War.”