| Does this open up any investment or business opportunities? I feel like the shipping and railroad industry is enormous and impenetrable, but there must be some smaller opportunities in here. Even if it's something sort of intangible, like "increasing transparency and fighting corruption". Because you know some percentage of this money went into the wrong pockets. If you were just a programmer from a western country, how would you even begin to get started in developing markets? Not just this railway project, but Africa and Asia in general. I'm reading things like this [1]: > China, India and the rest of the developing world will eclipse the west in a dramatic shift in the balance of economic power over the next 50 years. So I want to be where the growth is happening. How do I do that? Do I need millions of dollars before I can achieve anything? Should I learn Mandarin, Hindi, or Swahili? In the past, I would have had to visit some of these countries and talk to some local entrepreneurs. Now I can just do my own research, meet people online, and have Skype calls. There's really no need to travel in order to find opportunities. EDIT: I just watched the "Empire of Dust" documentary... That's really eye-opening. I hate to think about how much all of those workers are being paid. Even the Chinese managers. I guess business is business, and they just pay as little as possible. It also seems like it is very difficult to get anything done. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/datablog/2012... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0C4_88ub_M |
Ethiopia is land-locked and given its not-so-great relationship with Eritrea, uses Djibouti as its primary port. The time-savings of the railway will bring down port-to-Addis shipment times to 12 hours which is awesome considering it can take 3 days now (although the customs process will need to be improved to really speed it up)
It will also reduce the costs necessary to repair the roadways that trucks take to get to Djibouti and back. The incoming lane on these roads is often rutted like crazy due to the weight of the goods and truck drivers are not always the most reliable people.
Ethiopia is also home to one of the fastest growing economies in the world and it is extremely import-dependent. The lower the costs for transit, the lower the costs for the consumer.
RE: wanting to be where the growth is, you really need to be here to see it (I spend most of my time in Ethiopia) You don't have to know the local language and you don't need millions of dollars but you need to have an appetite for risk and be an extremely patient person. Nothing generally works out the way you think it will here so be open to other outcomes and be resilient through it all.
PM if you have any questions.