{"word_count": 264, "character_count": 1895}
ICES20 (Mäqälle, 4 octobre 2018)Panel ID: 0304 Enabling Infrastructures, Redefining Territories: Ethiopia’s Regions Beyond Rural or Urban BiasThe Ethiopian National Railway Network and the Ethiopia Power Grid:A Completion for Regional Integration in Federal EthiopiaIt was notuntil the construction of the centralized road network during the Italianoccupation that Ethiopian regions saw the end of their isolation. TheFrench-Ethiopian only provided a limited and fragile outlet to world markets. Despitea steady economic growth encouraged by an open access to the world the"African Lion" is still experiencing a wider gap between the better-integratedcentral regions and the remote peripheries. In accordance with the vision ofthe Growth and Transformation Plans theDjibouti-Addis Abäba Development Corridor along the new standard gaugeelectrified railway is the first step towards a network that will extend acrossthe highlands and the lowlands to the borders. Similarly, the massiveproduction of hydroelectricity generated by the big plants, built in thecanyons carved in the central plateau, is transported along the high voltagelines of the Ethiopia Power Grid across the peripheral regions and furtheracross the borders into the neighbouring countries. Ethiopia intends to be in afew years’ time an emerging state, which will export manufactured goods bycreating a network of regional industrial parks. Maps show how the NationalRailway Network and the Power Grid have anchored the federal regions to AddisAbäba. New territorial divisions based upon these centres of industrializationwill compete with the kellel, theestablished federal regions. It is a fact that this recentralization processowes a lot to the increasing demographic and economic weight of the country.This contribution will address issues of national and regional integration,which is a challenge in Ethiopian geopolitics.