A 58 floor high, five star hotel in Addis Ababa will become the tallest building in Ethiopia as well as arguably the tallest in the whole African continent. Presently, the tallest building in Africa is the 54 floors high Carlton Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The China-based Guangdong Chuanhui Group, which is currently building the biggest cement factory in Ethiopia, will construct the hotel skyscraper. Addis Ababa mayor Kuma Demeksa told the company's President Mr. Yanlin Liu the hotel project would "provide jobs and promote the local economic development" and it would become an African landmark in the highest city in Africa. Ethiopian Trade and Industry Minister Girma Birru said his country welcomes more Chinese and Asian companies to invest in the growing tourism sector and to build more skyscrapers, particularly as Addis Ababa is behind only New York and London as the world's diplomatic center.

The second tallest building in Ethiopia will be the 42-storey tower of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) headquarters that is under construction. (pictured right)

• 58 storey five star hotel in Ethiopia (CAPITAL NEWSPAPER)

The tallest building in Ethiopia is on its way following a land agreement between Chinese based, Guangdong Chuanhui Group and the Addis Ababa City Administration. The 58 floor, five star, Chuan Hui International Hotel, one of five proposed luxury hotel projects, will take up 50,000 square meters of land and will cost 2.4 billion birr.

“We requested the land in the area from Meskel Square to Bole,” Alem Desta, an official of the company told Capital.

Plans are for construction to begin right away and finish in 18 months, according to officials.
Currently, the government wants to increase the number of deluxe hotels in the town. “The City Administration is facilitating the plot, but we don’t know where the exact location is,” Alem added.

[Image: Mayor Kuma Demeksa with company President Yanlin Liu]

Recently the company official and the town Mayor held talks about the hotel. Kuma Demekssa, mayor of Addis Ababa, promised Yanlin Liu, president of the Chinese company, they would finalize the land lease process quickly to implement the project. The City Administration has organized a special team to follow the lease process

The Chinese company manages six large hotels in China and wants to implement the project quickly. According to information obtained from the City Land Administration Office, four additional local and international investors have submitted five star hotel proposals to the city administration.

Today there are only three five star hotels in Addis, but luxury hotels are booming in the city together with other tourist attractions in the country. Addis Abeba is becoming more and more the conference venue for Africa with the African Union Commission and the Economic Commission for Africa, among others, regularly hosting large meetings here. Many hoteliers expect high occupancy rate throughout the year.

Meanwhile, Guangdong Chuanhui Group officially inaugurated its cement plant at Mojo last Sunday, and Chuanhui Plastic Plc., another leg of the Chinese company has began producing plastic bags two months ago at Dukem. Another new cement manufacturing plant, C.H Clinker Manufacturer Plc is in its final stage to start production in Gebre Guracha area. This factory is constructed at a cost of three billion birr.

SOURCE: CAPITAL