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Inv I l i RNE S Tl RI ECTr r LULIPYi~iIriReport No. AF-60a I.1 Public Disclosure Authorized This report was prepared for use within the Bank and its affiliated orgonizations. TThey do not accept responsibility for itg accuracy or completeness. The report may not be published nor marj it be quoted as representingr their views.' TNTPRNATTCkNL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION-AND DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. ASSOCIATION Public Disclosure Authorized THE ECONOMY OF ETHIOPIA (in five volumes) Itrf"%T TT'KXL' TTT -V %J..JAULJLV.L;& ".L.L TRANSPORTATION Public Disclosure Authorized August 31, 1967 Public Disclosure Authorized Africa Department CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS Unit - Ethiopian dollar (Eth$) US$1. 00 Eth$Z.50 T. 1,-.1 nn - TTChn AA METRIC SYSTEM 1 meter (m) = 39. 37 inches 1 kilometer (km) = 0. 62 miles 1 hectare (ha) = 2.471 acres 1 square k4lot-neter = 0.38 square m0iles TIME The Ethiopian calender year (EC) runs from September 11 to September 10. Moreover, there is a difference of about 7-3/4 years between the Gregorian and the Ethiopian era. For intance, 1959 EC runs froM. September 11, 1966 to September 10, 1967. Most of the official Ethiopian statistics on national accounts, production, and foreign trade are converted to the Gregorian calender. Throughout the report the Gregorian calender is used. The Ethiopian budget year begins on July 8. For example, Ethiopian budget year 1959 runs from July 8, 1966 to July 7, 1967. In the report this year is referred to as budget year 1966/67. ECONOMY OF ETHIOPIA VOLUME III TRANSPOITATION This- repointW+. i hbased orn +he findings of1 2 mTisionn in rnvemher- December 1966 to Ethiopia composed of Messrs. David Kochav (Ghief of Missior. - T~R,RTPn) TD,fin TiJmnl (TlRPn)l .Jorgcn R Lotz (Ilg), Willem Tiaane (IBRD), Sei-Young Park (IBRD), Stuard M. Taylor (FAO), Ann4 bal V; 1 1ela (IBRD3) , and T . El.wyng. I,i 1 am.S (FAO Consultant). Volume III has been prepared by Mr. Sei-Young Park. TABIE OF CONTENTS Page No. I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. PROBLEMS OF TRANSPORT POLICY 2 A. Transport Investment and Economic Development 2 B. Transport Coordination 3 a. Investment Coordination 3 b. Regulatlon of Transport Operations 4 c. Road User Charges 5 III. ROADS 7 A. Recent Developments of Road System 7 B. Adninistration of Roads 8 C. Road Transport Industry 10 D. Review of Road Investment Plan 12 IV. RAILWAYS 17 A. Railways' Place in Ethiopian Economy 17 B. Investment Requirements for Railways 18 V. PORTS 19 A. The Port Development Policy 19 B. Administration of Ports 21 C. Port Investment Requirements 23 VI. CIVIL AVIATION 23 A.. freneral 23 B Domestic Airports 25 C. Administration of Civil Aviation 26 D. Operations of Ethiopian Airlines 27 ANNE MAP TABLES Tabl e 1 - National Road Svstem. 19q7/58-1966/67 Table 2 - IHA Expenditures on Roads, 1957/58-1965/66 Tabhl 3 - anovenrnment Capita.nl rudget- 1903/6L,-1966/67 Table 4 - Motor Fuel Consumption, 1958/59-1965166 Table 5 - VMt.rn.Uehincles in Circulatinn, l962-1Q6 Table of Contents -2- Table 6 - Average Daily Vehicle-Kilometers, 1953/5h-1965/66 Table 7 - Tentative Road Investment Proeram. 1967/68-1971/72 Table 8 - Revenues and Expenditures of Ports, 1960/61-1965/66 Table 9 - Traffic Through Port of Assab. 1960/61-1965/66 Table 10 - Traffic through Port of Massawa, l960/61-1965/66 Table 11 - Pronosed Purcnhase of EqPiipment for Massawa and Assab Ports Table 12 - Ethiopian Airlines, Operating Statistics, 1956-1965 Tahle 13 - a-iAEthiopia_n inn Finbnpin1 n StatiStiGS; 1956-1965 Table 14 - Port of Djibouti, Traffic Statistics 1958-1965 I. INTRODUCTION 1. Ethiopia lies between 3½< and 18° N latitude and 33 and 480 E longi- tude in East Afrina. Before Eritre a wa federated in 1952; Ethionia was an inland country. The main outlet to the Red Sea was through the French Somali- anad nort. Dbibonti The dtio br'h1. to Ethiopia the 1000 km coazt- line of Eritrea with the ports of Massawa and Assab. 2. The large size of the country -- 1,220,000 kM2 , twice the size of France -- and the difficult opographical coni4tions make provisionr of adequate transport facilities difficult and costly. Between the lowland in the eastern half of the country which slopes toward the Red Sea .ad the So 1- Republ c and the high plateaus in the west, a high wall rises abruptly and precipitously Sep-arating the two regions. Thue road fro MUAddi Ababa to ALsm-ara ascer.ds -ad descends the escarpment at several difficult places. At only two points along the wall separatin the -westerrn plateaus from tWhe eastern lowlan.ds (between Massawa and Asmara and between Nazreth and Addis Ababa, where there is a break' in the line of escarpm,ent) has it been possible to cor.swruct railways wtich give access to the plateaus. 3. The backbone of the transport system of the country is roads, supple- mented by railways and air transport. Inland water transport is not impoi-tant as the rivers are for the most part unnavigable. The road system consist3 of about 6100 km of all-weather roads, of which 1900 Xm are asphalt paved, maintained by the Imperial Highway Authority, and over 16,000 km of unimproved roads. A considerable part of the present road system wvas built by the Italians during their occupation from 1936 to 1941. But due to neglect until the early 1950's, a large part had to be rebuilt; in this operation the etnkis three loans played an important role. The roads built during the Italian occupation were mainly for military requirements, and the alignment and standards are not always suitable for present economic development. The difficult mountain terrain, together with the special climatic problems arising from the alternating extremely wet and dry seasons, present a formidable maintenance problem. h. There are two railways in Ethiopia. The 781 km single track meter- gauge line from Addis Ababa to Djibouti in French Somaliland, completed in 1917. is operated by the Franco-Ethiopian Railways Company. The 306 km railway from the Massawa port to Asmara and Agordat, in Eritrea, is operated oy the Govern- ment. The latter railway has a much steeper gradient, as it climbs 2300 m in about 80 km. 5. Since the construction of the port of Assab, completed in 1961, there has been a three-way split in external trade of Ethiopia between lassawa, Assab and Djibouti. The present trend, however, is to develop the Eritreal ports, particularly Assab, in preference to the French-controlled port of Djibouti. 6. The mountainous nature of the country and the relatively under- developed overland transport facilities give special importance to internal air transport. There are about 50 airports and landing strips. Ethiopian Airlines, government-owned and established in 1945, operates regular services to about 30 domestic airports, many of which, however, are closed during part of the rainy season. 7. During the past 10 to 15 years the Goveniment has made great efforts to expand and improve the country's transport facilities. The investment program was mainly concentrated in highwav construction and in building a new deep-water port at Assab. The length of all-weather roads has more than doubled during the past 10 years. The road progrnm w2S mainly devoted to primary road construction; relatively little was done with regard to mainte- nance of t-he road system and provi-sion of secondaj and feeder roads. II. PROBLEMS OF TRANSPORT POLICY A. Transport Investment and Economic Development 8. Ethiopia is potentially a very rich country. The fertile soil and the livestock potentials could be the envy o maniy less favorably endowe4 countries. On the other hand, the country, as discussed in the main volume oL this report, nas many unusually difficult problems which must be overcomLe if the rich economic resources are to be exploited. Inadequate transport therefore is but one of the problems which are holding back the progress of the social economy; tackling the transportation problem in isolation is not likely to lead to a satisfactory improvement of the economic conditions of the country. 9. There are countries where the transport problem poses virtually the only major constraint to development, where other econorriic needs are fli:Led by public investments or are met by the private sector. Examples are the nineteenth century United States, present-day Mexico and possibly Thailalnd, where provision of transport facilities may be expected to induce private initiative for economic improvement. Ethiopia today, unfortunately, is nlot one of these cases. 10. The task before the Government is not simply to eliminate one major bottleneck but to attempt a simultaneous assault on the multitude of problems that are hindering the development of its economy. The Government, dealiUng with many problems at once, needs well-coordinated action to distribute wisely its human and material resources rather than concentrate all available re- sources in one sector. 11. Until recently, the policy of the Government appears to have been to devote the greater part of its available resources to the provision of trans- portation facilities, particularly in road construction. The major portion of the Gfovernment's develonment finds has been directed to road construction while requirements of other sectors of the economy are rather inadequately met. Gonnneqiuently, the existing rapacities of the road facilities are urLder- - 3 - utilized. With few exceptions, the daily traffic volumes on all-weather' roads which have been imoroved during the past decade are far below 100 vehicles with no clear indication of increase. 12. The Mission is convinced that to make investments in transportation effective in stimulating economic developnmnt.