Udunopa B. Abalu
April 11, 2015

The U.S. Congress should revise and renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) before it expires on Sept. 30. AGOA has been encouraging export-led growth and improving economic development in sub-Saharan Africa since 2000. Now is the time to extend preferential market access to sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural products—the backbone of the region.

Although AGOA has had its successes, certainly more can be done. Many observers argue that AGOA has extensively expanded preferential access for diversified African exports to the United States. But AGOA exports—mostly concentrated in energy products—represent less than a 2 percent share of overall U.S. imports. AGOA can be enhanced if Congress allows provisions for African agricultural imports. Such imports should include cocoa (from countries like Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon), tea and coffee (Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda), cotton (Burkina Faso, Mali and Benin), rice (South Africa), palm nuts/oil (Cameroon and Nigeria), horticultural products (such as cut flowers from Ethiopia and Kenya), fish and fishery products (Ghana and Nigeria) and a wide spread of approved fresh and processed fruits and vegetables from various sub-Saharan countries. We can no longer ignore the potentials of these rising global economic giants.

This policy would help all sub-Saharan African countries and not just those that are energy exporters. It would lead to greater export diversification, and greater U.S.-Africa trading volume and commercial ties. It would bring more economic growth and political stability to the sub-Saharan African region, and more opportunities for U.S. exporters and consumers. A revised AGOA would ensure that the United States is both a partner and beneficiary of Africa’s dynamic economic future.

Too many “diversified” exports from Africa to the United States are energy-related products, which are from too few African countries. Total U.S. trade with sub-Saharan African countries decreased by 27 percent in the first quarter of 2014 compared to the same period in 2013—mainly because of falling oil prices and falling U.S. imports (mostly oil from Nigeria and Angola). On the other hand, U.S. imports (mostly cocoa) from Côte d’Ivoire increased by 54 percent. Moreover, U.S. imports of cashew nuts for consumption increased by 35 percent from Benin and 13.2 percent Burkina Faso from 2013 to 2014. Extending preferential access to agricultural products would not only increase export diversification but also encourage more African countries to maximize their ability to benefit under AGOA. Allowing agricultural provisions would allow AGOA to reach its highest potential.

Agriculture is Africa’s largest economic sector, representing 15 percent of the continent’s total GDP. While faced with competing agricultural exports from Asia and South America, AGOA states have comparative advantages in lower labor costs. As agricultural trade increases in Africa, so will jobs and income levels. AGOA states would also be less likely to engage in political conflict as agricultural trade increases.

Increased economic growth in AGOA states would benefit U.S. companies seeking to expand their businesses abroad. U.S. consumers would also benefit from having more access to low-priced agricultural imports. Even though U.S. agricultural producers might receive lower profit margins due to lowered prices from the increased competition, they would still enjoy domestic farm subsidy protection.

Still, some may argue that this policy will never be realized because of the politics surrounding U.S. farm subsidies. Moreover, for Congress to act on a significant piece of trade legislation during its fall session would be quite challenging, to say the least. According to an article by Witney Schneidman at the Brookings Institution, it took Congress more than a year to extend AGOA’s third-country fabric provision in 2012—a provision that had already been extended twice. Even as the provision was eventually extended, it was extended at the 11th hour, which then led to cancelled contracts and the loss of jobs in AGOA countries. Yes, expanding preferential market access to Africa’s agricultural imports will be difficult and time consuming, but it is possible and can be done with due diligence.

Key supporting actors from U.S. companies and trade associations can help garner further support from Congress. Devin Nunes (R-CA), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, said in July 2014, before announcing the July 2014 Subcommittee hearing on AGOA, that “AGOA is an important development tool that has been proven to promote economic growth and jobs both in developing countries in Africa and the United States. … We are studying potential changes to the program to improve its effectiveness and utilization. We are also exploring how Africa can reduce barriers and become more attractive for trade and investment within Africa, as well as globally, such as through full implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.” Lobbying efforts would need to focus on those agricultural products that would not negatively impact competing U.S. domestic production. A special quota system should be implemented to allow market access for a set number of agricultural imports from AGOA states.

Leaving out agriculture from AGOA would be equivalent to leaving out sub-Saharan Africa from growing global trade trends. But market access alone is not enough. The United States should also engage African economic and trade associations, such as the Economic Commission for West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), by organizing annual agricultural trade conferences for AGOA states, focusing on issues like trade facilitation, dealing with supply-side constraints, climate-change impacts on agriculture and food supply, strategic infrastructure investments, enhancing market competitiveness, and promoting awareness to African agricultural producers about AGOA. These conferences could cost approximately $300,000 at least, but can be funded through corporate sponsorship or the Foreign Agricultural Services budget.

Extending preferential market access to agricultural products is Africa’s crucial path to economic growth—and for the United States, a ripe fruit of abundant opportunities.

Udunopa B. Abalu is a graduate student and research assistant at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. She studies international trade and investment policy and is expected to earn her master’s next month. Her personal studies and research focus on African trade and economic development issues. She has in-country experience in Nigeria, Ghana and Ethiopia.

Sourced here http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/4047.cfm

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Continuing to show Allana Potash how it’s done at half the float (and no sellout), while the market rewards results.

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Tuesday, April 14, 2015 by Proactive Investors

South Boulder Mines pilot tests conducted for the Colluli SOP project Definitive Feasibility Study have produced ultra-high purity potassium sulphate grades.

South Boulder Mines (ASX:STB) pilot tests conducted for the Colluli SOP project Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) have produced ultra-high purity potassium sulphate (SOP) grades.

Potassium sulphate is a premium potash fertiliser used for chloride intolerant crops and arid climatic conditions.

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Full detail STB/ASX *.pdf release here  http://www.southbouldermines.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Colluli-Pilot-Tests-Consistently.pdf

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The pilot tests have provided SOP samples that can be introduced to potential commercial partners.

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Samples are still being generated as the pilot plant trials progress from 20 hours trial runs to 40 hour trial runs.

These results were consistently achieved from a series of pilot plant runs conducted throughout March 2015.

The grades achieved were consistently higher than industry standard grades, with results including:

– 98% K2SO4 achieved in final Colluli product vs typical industry product of 94% K2SO4.

In conventional potash K2O reporting terms:

– 52.9% K2O avg. grade SOP product from Colluli vs typical industry product 50.8%K2O.
– Maximum Colluli K2O 53.2%.
– Minimum Colluli K2O 52.4%.

Results are repeatable over a range of feed material and feed grade. Two more repeatability tests are planned to round off the DFS metallurgical program.

South Boulder said that given the results to date, it is unlikely that there will be any material differences in the results.

The Colluli ultra-pure SOP also has exceptionally low chlorine levels at less than 0.1%. Chloride intolerant crops include fruits, vegetables, nuts, and coffee.

Paul Donaldson, managing director, commented: “The Colluli project simply gets better and better. We have a process and a unique resource which combine to produce a premium fertiliser with a premium grade.

“The repeatability of the results with a diverse range of feed material demonstrates the robustness of the process.

“Global Potash Solutions and the Saskatchewan Research Council have done an excellent job on the Colluli process design, which is a commercially proven high yield, low energy input conversion to potassium sulphate achieved by combining KCl and kainite.”

Robust Process Design

SOP has been produced from different feed compositions and sources. Pilot tests were run over a 20 hour period using combinations of kainite from the Colluli resource, with sylvite from both the Canadian potash province of Saskatchewan and sylvite produced from the Colluli resource.

Results were consistent, repeatable, and reliable, demonstrating a robust process design.

SOP production from the combination of KCl and kainite is a commercially proven process and application of this process, in combination with process enhancements proposed by the Colluli Technical Review Committee, to the Colluli salts gives a superior SOP product.

Analysis

South Boulder’s pilot tests conducted for the Colluli SOP project DFS have produced ultra-high purity potassium sulphate grades, and have provided samples that can be introduced to potential commercial partners.

The prefeasibility study completed in February 2015 indicates that the Colluli SOP Project will be in the bottom quartile of production costs.

Colluli also has the lowest capital intensity of all advanced SOP projects globally.

The resource has unrivalled proximity to the coast, robust project economics, is underpinned by a large resource, and will produce a premium fertiliser with superior product quality.

Proactive Investors had on 24th March calculated a 12 month price target range of $0.40 to $0.45 and placed a Speculative Buy recommendation on South Boulder, and at the time the company was trading at $0.23.

Yesterday the company hit a 12-month high of $0.43, or 87% higher than when the price target was allocated.

Sourced here http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/61738/south-boulder-mines-produces-high-purity-potassium-sulphate-61738.html

Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news, articles and research reports on ASX emerging companies with distribution in Australia, UK, North America and Hong Kong / China.

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Disease Detection Gets A Boost With Plans For A CDC In Africa

In 1946, a malaria outbreak across the Southern U.S. catalyzed the formation of what would eventually become the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Then in 2002, China’s CDC began its operations just as an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, took hold.

Now, as the worst Ebola outbreak in history winds down, African health officials announced Monday they will partner with the U.S. to establish a continentwide African CDC.

The idea for an African CDC first came to light at the 2013 African Union Special Summit on HIV and AIDS, Tuberculous and Malaria in Abuja, Nigeria. If Ebola wasn’t the specific catalyst for forming the African CDC, the epidemic definitely sped up the timeline, U.S. health officials said Monday.

The African CDC will initially set up shop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which is home to the African Union. That should happen later this year.

Soon after, five regional centers will open at undetermined locations across the continent. Field epidemiologists will staff each location and “will be responsible for disease surveillance, investigations, analysis and reporting trends and anomalies,” the CDC said Monday in a statement.

In the event of a health emergency — such as Ebola — the office in Addis Ababa will act as a central command post, organizing and deploying teams of medical workers.

Some of that disease surveillance and emergency dispatching is already happening, says Dr. Thomas Kenyon, director of the U.S. CDC’s Center for Global Health. The African CDC will “take advantage of existing structures to make it additive to what’s already there,” he tells NPR.

In other words, the African CDC won’t create an epidemiological infrastructure from the ground up. It doesn’t need to. What it will do is link together agencies and laboratories in various countries that aren’t always great at talking to each other. “Countries that might be weak in one diagnostic area can benefit from a neighbor who might have a lot of capability in that area,” Kenyon says.

To help make this happen, the U.S. CDC is donating both brainpower and troops on the ground. The Atlanta-based organization says it will provide “technical expertise” and help in the African CDC’s long-term, strategic planning. It will also embed two public health leaders at the temporary headquarters in Addis Ababa and about 10 to 12 epidemiologists and support staff.

The CDC already trains hundreds of African epidemiologists each year, Kenyon says, and the establishment of an African CDC will help coordinate that force.

Of course, all of this comes at a cost. But how much funding it will take to get the African CDC off the ground isn’t something either side is touting. Those figures are still being worked out, Kenyon says. But the 54 member states of the African Union will ultimately be responsible for funding the organization.

“I think we’re all going to have to do our part,” Kenyon says, “but the leadership and real commitment will have to come from African governments themselves.”

http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2015/04/14/399427210/disease-detection-gets-a-boost-with-plans-for-a-cdc-in-africa

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Empowering women major part of cooperation between Ethiopia, Canada

Addis Ababa: April 15, 2015 –

http://www.fanabc.com/english/index.php/news/item/2726-empowering-women-major-part-of-cooperation-between-ethiopia,-canada

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Ethiopia’s election crucial manifestation of democracy in the country: Dr. Hailemikael Abera

Addis Ababa, 15 April 2015 –

http://www.waltainfo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18676:ethiopias-election-crucial-manifestation-of-democracy-in-the-country-dr-hailemikael-abera&catid=52:national-news&Itemid=291

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National strategy looks into monopoly of logistics operation 

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Ethiopia puts up a new national logistics strategy that will lead the sector’s development for the coming several decades.

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The strategy that is developed by Nathan Associates Inc. a US based company, with the support of United Nation Development Program (UNDP), is showing directions on how the logistics sector should be developed and expanded.

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The strategy document that was officially handed over to officials of the government by UNDP on April 9 includes a diagnostics study, a blueprint of actions, intervention and implementation plan, according to Mekonnen Abera, Director General of Ethiopian Maritimes Authority Affairs (EMAA).

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The goal of the Ethiopian National Logistics Strategy is to enhance Ethiopia’s economic growth through increasing trade, especially for value-added commodities, and through the reduction of transport costs by increasing efficiency. The strategy is structured to improve the export competitiveness of Ethiopian products and availability of imports for industry and consumers at competitive prices within reliable delivery times.

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The logistics sector, particularly the import/export stream, is said to be one of the hurdles that slows down the country’s growth. The Ethiopian government has been undertaking several restructuring measures on the sector while expanding and modernizing the infrastructures in the meantime. Despite the efforts, the sector is still in its early stages compared to international practices.

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Workneh Gebeyehu, Minister of Transport, who received the document, told Capital that the new strategy will be implemented in association with other policies and strategies. Mekonnen, on his part said that EMAA has been following up the development of the strategy.  “EMAA has setup a Logistics Transformation Office (LTO) that will be in charge of this task and the realization of the strategy’s implementation. UNDP has already committed resources for the setting up of LTO,” he said in a speech at the handover ceremony. According to the EMAA head, a major achievement in this context is made with the establishment of a high level government body, National Logistics Council (ENALCO) that is responsible to oversee the entire logistics system in the country.

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The council was formed under the direct leadership of the government. It is chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister, Workneh Gebeyehu who is its Vice Chairman, and various ministers, business community and logistics service providers that assume responsibilities in the council to spearhead the logistics sector development. EMAA serves as a permanent secretary office, while LTO serves as the expertise arm of ENALCO providing professional and technical support to facilitate the accomplishment of the planned logistics transformation strategies.

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Sources told Capital that the document stated that granting of a monopoly to Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise (ESLSE) for arranging ocean and inland transport of goods imported using a letter of credit, as well as for the operation of the dry ports where these goods are cleared has resulted in an inefficient system that increases the cost and reduces the availability of consumer goods.
The strategic document that Capital had access to indicated that given the capacity of the private sector to perform the same services in a competitive market, there is little justification for continuing this monopoly.

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Since the implementation of the multimodal system, the private sector has requested to be allowed to perform and be part of the logistics operations, while the scheme is fully controlled by ESLSE.
Workneh told Capital that the recommendations that were listed in the strategy document shall be implemented in harmony with the country’s policy.
He declined to give any details whether the private sector will be let to activate the multimodal scheme. “We will disclose that if we have any news about the issue,” the logistics Chief added.

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He said that the country’s logistics sector is tied in quandary but the government is working to revive it. The strategic blueprint document stated that there is a clear need to separate two unique flows of Ethiopian cargo.
There are cargos whose owners want to clear as fast as possible and owners cooperate with the system operators to minimize the likelihood of delays. There are, on the other hand, cargos owners whose seem to want to use the port facilities (and dry ports) as storages.
These long-deposited cargo generate additional burden on the temporary storage facilities, as they create additional cargo pile ups and reduce terminal capacities. Such behavior is observed in container cargos as well as break-bulk cargos.

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The earlier these cargo flows are separated, the lesser will be the impact on the cargo that is wanted quickly by its owners.  “This reduces the impact on the port, trucks assignment, highway congestion, dry ports operations and final delivery. The cargo can be temporarily stored outside the Port of Djibouti and transferred slowly, during off peak times to different storing facilities around Ethiopia. The segregation will also allow services to be tailored to fast clearance cargo, such as reliable and predictable customs clearance, expedited transfer from Djibouti to the dry ports and final delivery,” the strategy document reads.

http://www.capitalethiopia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5072:national-strategy-looks-into-monopoly-of-logistics-operation-&catid=54:news&Itemid=27

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Ethiopia to invest $240 million on road construction

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As part of its fourth road sector development plan, Ethiopia is to construct three road projects costing more than $240 million, totaling 262.6 kilometers.

The first road project to be constructed is the 83.4 kms Sodo-Tercha  asphalt concrete project in Southern Ethiopia  signed with China Railway Seventh Group Limited with a total outlay of  USD $84 million.

The project is expected to pass through mountainous range, take 42 months to finish, be 19 meters wide in rural areas and 10 meters wide in urban areas.

The second one  located in Northern Ethiopia is the Bilbela-Sekota road project signed with China first Highway Engineering Company, expected to cost USD 102 million, be 98.7 kms long and take 39 months to complete. It’s also expected to be 14 meters long in urban areas and seven meters long in rural areas.

The Third one is the 80.5 kms Dichito-Gaielfi roundabout- Beleho  in north East of Ethiopia to be implemented  by a local construction company  Defense Construction Enterprise. The project will see 63.5 kms of it built with Cement Concrete Rigid Pavement, while the rest 17 kms will be with standard asphalt basis.

It’s anticipated to take 1170 days to complete, be 10 meters wide in urban areas, 7 meters wide in rural areas, and be vital in connecting Landlocked Ethiopia with Tadjourah Port facilitating export-import trade of Ethiopia and the economy of the areas on its route.

All Three road projects expenses will be fully covered by the Ethiopian government.

http://www.newbusinessethiopia.com/index.php/component/k2/item/309-ethiopia-invest-240-million-on-road-construction/309-ethiopia-invest-240-million-on-road-construction

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British’s KEFI to produce 29 tons of gold and silver in Ethiopia 

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 April 14, 2015

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BY ANDUALEM SISAY GESSESSE

KEFI Minerals Limited of British set to start production of close to 28.8 tons of gold and silver in the coming 11 years. The company and Ethiopian Ministry of Mines signed a large scale gold and silver production agreement last night in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 

The company will start production in Ganji Zone, Tulu Kapi area of Oromia Region of Ethiopia, according to Harry Anagnostaras – Adams, non- executive chairman of KEFI Minerals Ethiopia Limited.

“It will take real determination and responsibility from our side and we will do it,” said Mr. Adams said after signing the agreement.

He noted that six months is needed to access the around $152 million total financing from the banks specialized in mining. “…Through Nyota Minerals and our shareholders we are more confident and raise the capital required. We reduced the amount of capital from our initial Tulu Kapi project and also reduced the number of households to be resettled from 460 to 260 households by redesigning the area,” he said.

“We have involved Ethiopian experts in designing to create new livelihood. Whatever the compensation is required we will pay,” Mr. Adams added.

From Golden Prospect to Nyota and KEFI, the Tulu Kapi gold exploration went through different companies since 2005 with a total investment of $42 million, according to Dr. Kebede Belete, KEFI Minerals Country manager for Ethiopia.

Before KEFI has taken over Tulu Kapi’s project in Ethiopia 18 months ago and has been in similar mining project in Saudi Arabia for the past seven years.

“The agreement we signed will create jobs for 700 people and generates $1.06 billion foreign currency for the country in eleven years with additional $130 million income for government. They will also train our people and we also agreed that they will protect the environment. It will be a good model for other mining companies and open doors for others,” said Tolossa Shaggi Minister of Mines of Ethiopia.

“We hope that other companies will follow KEFI’s suit and engaged in development of Ethiopia’s minerals,” he said indicating that in the coming two years his ministry expects at least a minimum of three companies engaged in gold exploration to acquire production license.

From 15-20 years we plan to continue production from 15 to 20 years,” Dr. Kebede said indicating the initial production area is 7 square kilometers.

Mr. Adams on his part noted that the overall gold reserve potential is unknown. “What we know is what is already identified … Sometimes one has to go underground to estimate the additional. Our ambition is to be an example. The minister encouraged us to do further,” Mr. Adams added.

Ethiopia has been earning up to $500 million annually from its mineral exports. Out of this, gold covers the major share. So far MIDROC Gold Company of the Saudi- Ethiopian tycoon Al-Amoudi was the only one engaged in large scale gold production in Ethiopia with 5 tons per annum. The rest around 7 to 8 tons per annum is produced by thousands of artisan (traditional) gold producers.

http://www.newbusinessethiopia.com/index.php/component/k2/item/304-british-s-kefi-to-produce-29-tons-of-gold-and-silver-in-Ethiopia

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Ethiopia keen to expand Africa-Japan industrial cooperation

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Addis Ababa, 14 April 2015 –

Ambassador Berhane Gebre-Christos, State Minister for Foreign Affairs, meeting a delegation of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) headed by Hiroyuki Nemoto, Director-General for Overseas Planning Department of JETRO on Tuesday (April 14), reiterated Ethiopia’s firm commitment to build and promote cooperation between Japan and Africa in industrialization, MoFA reported.

Ambassador Berhane, underlining historic ties with Japan, emphasized it was a country Ethiopia valued highly and was ready to pursue shared benefits.

He noted that Ethiopia has made huge headway in socio-economic development coupled with encouraging FDI inflows and an improved investment landscape.

He said it was time for Japanese companies to invest in Ethiopia, and become part of the impetus for the resurgent Ethiopia, not least in area of establishing industrial zones.

Ambassador Berhane, pointing out that Ethiopia was implementing Japan’s Kaizen Management Principles in order to enhance productivity and quality, expressed his hope that the engagement of Japanese companies would encourage Ethiopia’s developmental agenda.

Director-General Hiroyuki Nemoto stressed JETRO was keen to work with the Government of Ethiopia and emphasized that JETRO’S extensive experience in attracting Japanese companies to industrial zones in countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar and India would help support  Ethiopia’s industrial development policy.

He noted that JETRO was intending to be a promoter of two-way trade between Africa and Japan and said it would support African infrastructure development, local industries and human resource development.

JETRO is a Japanese government linked organization focusing on promotion of trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world.

http://www.waltainfo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18665:ethiopia-keen-to-expand-africa-japan-industrial-cooperation&catid=52:national-news&Itemid=291

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Ethiopia envisions USD 1bn revenue from textile export in GTP II

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The Ethiopian government extends attractive incentive packages to boost production of the manufacturing industry subsector in an attempt to make the nation a major exporter of textile products.

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The government’s incentive is provided for private sectors so as to attract more investment in the sector with 100 percent duty free importation of machineries and equipment.

Similarly, duty free importation of spare parts of 15 percent of capital goods for the first five years of operation, the possibility to hire expatriates free from income tax provided they stay for no more than two years, and reconciliation of VAT for materials purchased locally during the project period is possible if declared in six months time are included among the incentives provided by the government.

During the second phase of the growth and transformation plan, Textile Industry Development Institute (TIDI) said that they have targeted USD one billion in annual revenue from textile and garment export.

Silesh Lemma, Director-General of the institute, at a workshop held at Intercontinental Hotel last week organized to sensitize manufacturers over Ethiopia’s plans for the sector said that they are working to be a leading country in light manufacturing in Africa which will lay the foundation for heavy and high tech industries by 2025.

According to the director, more than 152 new investments are expected during GTP II while at least USD one billion is anticipated from the sector’s export coupled with more than 170,000 job opportunities.

The Director-General also indicated that the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) extends a 70 percent loan against 30 percent equity contribution in-cash by the investor (in-kind contribution policy revision is underway) for green field investment. In addition, DBE further extends a 60 percent loan against 40 percent equity contribution in cash or in kind.

In order to realize the ambitious plan, the country is building over ten industrial zones all of them are state developed.

Textile Industry is considered as a number one priority by the Government’s Industrial Development Strategy even during the current GTP which ends in June 2015.

However, the sector’s performance has not been to the satisfaction of the government during the GTP period with annual earnings from export not exceeding USD 100 million with shortage of raw materials, inefficiency, and lack of technological applications, among others affecting the sector. But the government insists that the future for the sector is bright.

http://www.yarnsandfibers.com/news/textile-news/ethiopia-envisions-usd-1bn-revenue-textile-export-gtp-ii#.VS1Sb_nF-So

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Government drafts cement industry development strategy

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18 April 2015 Written by  Kaleyesus Bekele

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The Ministry of Industry is drafting a national cement industry development strategy that will enable it to assist the fast growth of the industry. 

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Spur and Panarottis Pizza Pasta to open their doors in Ethiopia

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Ethiopia, Rwanda keen to enhance cooperation

Addis Ababa: April 17, 2015 –

Ethiopia says China’s POLY-GCL to start gas drilling by July

Addis Ababa: April 16, 2015 –

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Metro rail gets off the ground

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http://africanbusinessmagazine.com/sector-reports/transport/metro-rail-gets-off-the-ground/

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Ethiopia Signs Credit Facility Agreement with French Development Agency (AFD)

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Addis Ababa: April 16, 2015 –

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A Credit facility agreement amounting to 50 million Euros (approximately 1.07 billion birr) were signed, today, 16 April 2015, between the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the French Development Agency at a ceremony held at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED).

The credit facility agreement was signed to provide 50 million Euros to finance the implementation of a project aiming at financial and technical support for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) B2 pilot corridor, which is one component of the Addis Ababa City Administration (AACA) long term public transportation network combining in a short term Light rail way transit (LRT), Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), regular bus lines and, in a long term, subway.

During the signing ceremony H.E Ato Ahemed Shide said “the project helps to build and operate the first pilot lane of BRT on a segregated corridor running from Wingate to Gofa Gebriel and mixed traffic from Gofa Gebreil to Jemo, within the framework it’s multimodal and integrated transportation system”.

The project will be implemented by Addis Ababa city administration, final beneficiary of the facility, represented by the Addis Ababa road and Transport Bureau (AARTB) acting as implementing agency.

French through the French Agency for Development worked with Addis Ababa City Government in terms of solid waste management (SWM) which will expand to relocation and modernization project of Addis Ababa Abattoirs Enterprise.

The agreement was signed by H.E Ato Ahemed Shide, State Minister of MOFED, and Mr. Christian Yoka, AFD Regional Manager on behalf of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and on behalf of the French Development Agency respectively.

http://www.fanabc.com/english/index.php/component/k2/item/2735?Itemid=674

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ERCA Raises 96pc Planned Revenue, Addis Abeba’s Revenue Lower

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In its nine month report for the current fiscal year, ERCA reports resounding success with Addis Abeba falling short by over 26pc

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The Ethiopian Revenues & Customs Authority (ERCA) released a near perfect nine month report for 2014/15 fiscal year, in which it bagged in 96pc of the targeted 98.4 billion Br.

The ERCA, however, had a less than optimistic report for Addis Abeba, where it had planned to collect 16.7 billion Br, but managed to collect only 12.2 billion Br of the total revenue of 94.4 billion Br. However, this lower performance was still 3.09 billion Br better than revenue collected during the same period in the last fiscal year.

In its report for the first half year, the ERCA had reported collecting 64.6 billion Br, which was 97.8pc of its planned revenue. In the same period of the last fiscal year, 2013/14, ERCA reported 53.3 billion Br from its projected 60.6 billion Br and 43.7 billion Br during the first half of the 2012/13 fiscal year. The report for Addis Abeba had shown a 25pc shortfall from the target in the first six months and that has now expanded to 26.9pc.

“Addis Abeba’s revenue achieved below target results because of the problems in using cash register machines, especially in the services sector,” said Fasika Belay, Communication & Promotion deputy director at ERCA.

Major contributors to the revenue the Authority collected are inland tax and Customs tariffs while the revenue from the sale of lottery tickets is insignificant, contributing less than one percent.

Contribution of inland tax for the nine month’s performance stood at 53.1 billion Br out of the planned 53.4 billion Br. This figure, compared to the last fiscal year, shows a 20.4pc growth, which amounts to nine billion Br.

Revenue from the import and export trade, including Customs duties and other taxes has shown a growth of 6.4 billion Br compared to the same period last year, totaling 41.2 billion Br, against the planned for 44.5 billion Br.

Income this year from the sale of lottery tickets was 80.8 million Br, well below the planned 98.3 million Br. The contribution of revenue from lottery tickets to the whole profile of revenue collection was only 0.09pc.

“The performance from lottery was below target as some tickets did not enter into market because of ship[pment lag from India,” said Tewodros Neway, public relations director at the National Lottery Administration (NLA).

The income from direct taxes was expected to be 25.8 billion Br, while the performance was 24.1 billion Br. Out of the direct taxes, domestic trade income tax anticipated was 19.2 billion Br and the actual performance was 17.4 billion Br.

Indirect income that contributed 30.4pc of the whole income was anticipated to be 27.4 billion Br and the performance stood at 28.7 billion Br. Of the indirect income, value added tax (VAT) contributed the higher 11.1 billion Br.

The import-export trade tax was expected to generate revenue of 44.5 billion Br while the actual performance was 41.2 billion Br.

ERCA, which is working to achieve a target revenue of 134.2 billion Br for the whole fiscal year, has achieved 19.5pc better in these nine months than it did in the previous, with 15.4 billion Br more collected.

“The average monthly performance of the nine months is 10 billion; this implies that if we continue this way, we can at least achieve 115.7 billion Br,” said Fasika.

According to ERCA’s report, tax contributions to the GDP totalled only 12pc, although the plan was to reach 15pc by the end of the Growth & Transformation Plan (GTP) in two months.

The Sub-Saharan Africa average shows 18pc contribution to the GDP.

http://addisfortune.net/articles/erca-raises-96pc-planned-revenue-addis-abebas-revenue-lower/

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Government Aims to Quadruple Coffee Production in Five-Years

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Coffee study recommends structural reform to maximize high quality production

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The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), in concert with the Ministry of Trade (MoT) has finalised a Coffee Development Strategy that will be used to boost coffee production in the second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II) over the next five years.

The strategy, developed after a six-month study conducted by Agrear Consultant, is targeted at raising the current coffee production capacity of the country by four fold.

Agrear began the study in April 2014 and completed it within six months at a cost of 200,000 euros, availed by the European Union.

“The study was initiated by the belief that as coffee is a permanent plant, the trading should depend on quality and it should be supported by special extension programmes,” said Fikru Amene, coffee development director at the MoA. “We did not achieve the plan that we set for the GTP I, which also triggered the study.”

The country had planned to reach export capacity of 600,910tn of coffee by the end of 2014/15- a year that marks the end of the GTP I from 319,647tn in 2009/10 at the start of the GTP I.

Currently, the export amount stands at 190,876tn as data for 2013/14 from the MoT indicate. This was far down from the plan of exporting 277,500tn of coffee to gain one billion dollars in revenue. The country was able to gain only 717 million dollars from coffee exports.

In the 2014/15 fiscal year, Ethiopia expects to produce 461,620tns of coffee, of which it expects to export 239,950tns for 862.55 million dollars, showing an increase of 23.6pc in volume and 20pc in revenue from the previous year.

The country’s plan for the first six months of the 2014/15 budget year was to export 73,593.5tn of coffee and gain an income of 269 million dollars. The actual quantity exported was 73,227.9tn, from which a higher than targeted revenue of 307.5 million dollars was gained.

Ethiopia stands fifth in the world with a production capacity of 379,500tn, which, however, is only 4.5pc of the total supply in the world market in 2012/13.

In order to enhance the country’s production, the study, indicated that there should be structural reform, making coffee have its own Ministry; loans should be facilitated for the coffee farmers and traders; the marketing of coffee should depend on quality rather than quantity; old coffee plants should be pruned; and the work procedure at the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) should be changed to allow international buyers to directly contact the farmers and buy the coffee from the farmers themselves.

“But, in order to maintain the quality of coffee and get better a price, we did not accept the recommendation to change the system at the ECX,” Fikru told Fortune.

The strategy can double the country’s number of coffee plants and quadruple production, thus impacting the export amount of the country by the end of the second fiscal year.

The Ministry has now identified 5 million hectares of land that has high potential for coffee production and the cultivation of coffee in the country is planned to reach two million from the current one million.

The study has identified new potential coffee production sites in Gambella, Benishangul Gumuz, Amhara, Oromia, the Southern Regional State and Tigray, according to Fikru.

In order to make sure that the target is met, the Ministry has prepared half a million coffee seedlings, and 5,000qt of seed coffee to be distributed to the potential areas.The Ministry also plans to prune 400,000ha of low production coffee plants, and uproot 200,000ha of old coffee trees.

“The result will not come overnight as coffee requires at least four years to bear fruit; but if proper follow-up is made, the target will be met at the end of the period,” said Fikru.

In order to implement this strategy well, extension programmes were established up to the Wereda level, according to Fikru. Coordination with banks and large farms is also being facilitated in order to simplify loans and share experiences.

“The strategy is comprehensive,with a span from resource management to production and cupping; it enables follow-up at every step,” said Seifu Mulugeta, the export promotion director at the MoT. “The MoT will have a stake in implementing issues related to marketing.”

It will also address issues related to contraband in the coffee trading that is now being seriously followed by the government’s high officials including the Prime Minister’s Office, according to Seifu.

http://addisfortune.net/articles/government-aims-to-quadruple-coffee-production-in-five-years/

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Turkey’s public lender Ziraat Bank to become the first foreign bank of Ethiopia

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Ethiopia’s renaissance follows Korean development

Addis Ababa: April 27, 2015 –

http://www.fanabc.com/english/index.php/news/item/2784-ethiopia’s-renaissance-follows-korean-development

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Juniper Glass Industries to Open Factory in Debra Birhan, at $50m

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The number of beer factories has doubled and this has increased the demand for bottles

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Juniper Glass Industries to Open Factory in Debra Birhan, at $50m. Juniper Glass Industries Plc is to open a factory on 12ht of land in Debre Birhan with a 50 million-dollar capital outlay.

“Without the need to make further feasibility studies, there is a growing demand for bottles in the country because with the launching of new beer factories the number of beer factories has doubled, which initiated the company to open its bottle factory,” Yared Mulgeta, special project manager at Juniper Glass Industries Plc told Fortune.

The company has a production capacity of 150 million bottles per year, targeting domestic and international markets. The raw materials required for the production of the bottles will be acquired locally. The major raw material for bottles, silica sand, will be obtained from Debre Birhan whereas the other raw material, soda ash, will be imported, Yared said. The factory is expected to create job opportunities for 500 people.

Currently, there are only three glass and bottle factories in the country – Addis Abeba Bottle & Glass Factory, Ethio Hanssam International Plc and Daylight Applied Technologies. From these factories the largest one, Addis Abeba Bottle and Glass Factory has a production capacity of 30,000tn of glass sheet and bottles annually. The company has an expansion project, which is expected to increase the production capacity by 50tn a day at its – factory site in Asko.

Ethio Hanssam International Plc is a glass-sheet factory with a production capacity of 42,000tns annually. The third operating company Daylight Applied Technologies has on its side, a production capacity of 20,000tns of bottle a year.

Including Juniper Glass Industries Plc and the expansion project of Addis Abeba Bottle & Glass Factory, there are currently four ongoing glass and bottle projects. Goda Glass & Bottles Manufacturing S.C, a company in Tigray, is expected to have a production capacity of 90tn a day and is in the process of selling shares. The fourth project, Allied Chemicals Plc, is expected to have a production capacity of 50tn a day.

Import data obtained from the Ethiopian Revenue & Tax Authority (ERCA) indicated that in 2014, 73,400tn of glass was imported, at a value of 1.19 billion Br. This figure had risen from 65,500tn worth 970 million Br in 2013. In 2012, the imported amount of glass was 56,400tn worth 732 million Br, increasing from 2011’s 40,000tns valued at 517 million Br.

The launching of these ongoing projects will meet the growing local demand for glass and bottles and reduce the billions spent on import bills, says Mengistu Getachew, director at the Ministry of Industry’s Glass Industry Development.

Mengistu mentioned the capital and energy intensive nature of the sector as challenges that discourage investment, adding that currently, investors are showing an interest in the sector because of the increasing demand.

http://addisfortune.net/articles/juniper-glass-industries-to-open-factory-in-debra-birhan-at-50m/

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New Shoe and Leather Factory Invests $35m in Debre Birhan

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My Shoes will be the fourth foreign-owned leather shoe factory of 20 in operation and will increase capital outlay to $60m in three years

A Turkish shoe company laid its cornerstone on a 70,000sqm plot in Debre Birhan on April 24, 2015 for the construction of a shoe and leather manufacturing plant targeting exclusivity.

My Shoes Shoe & Leather Manufacturing Plc will initially invest 35 million dollars on the land which it leased for 80 years at 50 cents a square metre when it acquired its licence in February 2015, according to one of its owners, Mehmet Yesildag, who is the major shareholder and general manager of the company.

The factory, which will have a production capacity of 30,000 shoes, will eventually push its capital to 60 million dollars after three years.

The company decided to invest in Ethiopia because of low cost of labour and energy and better tax incentives for export, said Mehmet.

Sixty-percent of the raw materials used for the production of the shoes will be imported mainly from Europe and the Middle East. Whereas the remaining 40pc of the raw materials will be obtained from the local market. The company’s raw material cost is expected to reach 16 million dollars annually.

The destinations for the company’s products will be Spain, England, France, United States and Middle Eastern countries, from which it aims to raise annual revenue of 34 million dollars.

The design for the factory has already been completed and construction will begin in May, 2015 says Shiferaw Mamo, investment co-coordinator at the Debre Birhan investment bureau. The plant will rest on 60pc of the land. The company is expected to employ 1,962 people initially, eventually growing to 3,000.

Shiferaw says that Debre Birhan has a number of allures, including the low cost of land, much cheaper than the usual lease rate of around 2,000Br a square metre.

Currently, there are 20 leather shoe factories in the country, excluding small scale producers, said Birhanu Serjebo corporate communication director at the Ministry of Industry’s Leather Industry Development Institute. My Shoes will be the fourth fully foreign-owned shoe manufacturer in Ethiopia. The three that are already in production are George Shoe of Taiwan, Huajian International Shoe City Plc of China, and Oliberte, a fair-trade shoe maker from Canada, all of which fully export their shoes. Domestically owned factories are manufacturing mainly for the home market, while international companies manufacture for the international market, said Birhanu.

Huajian, established in January 2012, is the largest of all with a production capacity of 2.19 million shoes a year from its plant located in the Eastern Industrial Zone.

Ethiopia made 30 million dollars from the export of shoes last year, says Birhanu.

Even though it cannot be said that this sector is sufficiently attracting foreign direct investment compared to the country’s resource of livestock, the number of foreign investments in the shoe and leather sector is showing improvement, says Aschalew Taddese, foreign investment promotion team leader at the Ethiopian Investment Commission. Besides creating employment opportunities for the people, the opening of the My Shoes Shoe & Leather Manufacturing Plc at Debre Birhan will diversify and create fair distribution of investments other than concentration within Addis Abeba, he added.

http://addisfortune.net/articles/new-shoe-and-leather-factory-invests-35m-in-debre-birhan/

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Ethiopia Expects 2015 Investments To Rise To $1.5B

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By Amy Nordrum

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Investors will earmark more money for Ethiopia this year than ever before, thanks to policies that have transformed the country into a manufacturing hub offering cheap power generation, low wages and reliable transportation.

The professional services firm Ernst & Young forecasts foreign direct investment in Ethiopia will hit a high of $1.5 billion in 2015 and maintain that level the next three years, a significant increase over $1.2 billion last year and just $108.5 million seven years ago, the Financial Times reported.

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That growth has been fueled in part by the lure of tax breaks for exporters. But the government has also leveraged loans provided by the World Bank to shore up the nation’s infrastructure. Designed to be Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is under construction as a means to produce cheap power, while a new airport is planned for the state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, which is now the continent’s biggest carrier.

These projects have bolsterd investors’ faith in Ethiopia’s long recovery from a devastating famine in the mid-1980s and the turmoil of a decades-long civil war. The country’s economy has grown by an annual average of 11 percent during the past decade, which is double the rate of its neighbors, according to the Associated Press.

Fitsum Arega, director of the Ethiopian Investment Commission, told the Financial Times that much of the nation’s newest investment is coming from China, India and Turkey and that it is landing new factories that will produce clothes and other textiles or goods such as leather. The entry of major brands and clothing manufacturers such as H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has fueled 61 percent growth in the apparel industry over the past six years, the Ethiopian Investment Commission reported.

Ernst & Young also predicted Ethiopia will become one of Africa’s top four manufacturing hubs by 2025. Huajian, a Chinese shoemaker, relocated to the country in 2012 and plans to expand its workforce there to 30,000, the Financial Times said.

http://www.ibtimes.com/ethiopia-expects-2015-investments-rise-15b-1897133

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Ethiopia’s safe drinking water coverage reaches 79 per cent

Addis Ababa: April 27, 2015 –

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Ethiopia’s safe drinking water coverage has reached 79 per cent, the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy (MoWIE) said.

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Water, Irrigation and Energy State Minister, Kebede Gerba told WIC that the coverage has reached to the stated per cent following the activities undertaken during the past four years of the GTP period.

More than 33 million people have gained access to safe drinking water during the reported period, up from the projected target of 32.5 million people, he said.
The ministry has been exerting paramount efforts to meet the increasing demand for potable water in rural and urban areas, the minister said.

According to Kebede, safe drinking water coverage in urban and rural parts of the country has currently reached 86 and 78 per cent, respectively.

Ethiopia meets the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target for drinking water supply, he said, adding 49,000 new water facilities that could benefit 15 million people under construction this budget year.

Some 9,000 water facilities that benefited 3.6 million people have already gone operational in the budget year, he said.

http://www.fanabc.com/english/index.php/news/item/2788-ethiopia’s-safe-drinking-water-coverage-reaches-79-per-cent

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Icrisat to take up agri research in dry lands of Ethiopia

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The Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) agreed to implement new approaches and priority international investments have been agreed for agricultural research and development in the dry lands of Ethiopia.

Four areas with greatest opportunities have been identified – intensification of legumes for better human and environmental health, expanding cereal production by promoting the industrial potential of sorghum and other millets, scaling up of watershed management for more intensive agriculture, and new approaches to help farmers manage climate variability.

“These identified opportunities can only be tackled through partnership at all levels on the value chain and making sure each step on this vertical chain has what it needs to act,” said Dr. Fentahun Mengistu the Director General of EIAR, according to a release here on Friday by Icrisat.

“We need to bring in new innovations and skills to capitalise on these opportunities. For long-term sustainability of these efforts, agri-business incubators are important for building entrepreneurial skills and capacity in Ethiopia. Icrisat has experience in setting up agribusiness incubators throughout India and now in other parts of Africa. South-south collaborations between India and Africa can accelerate these initiatives. It will also be important to involve women and youth as entrepreneurs and seeing agriculture as a viable and exciting business opportunity with the adoption of new technologies and leveraging ICT tools to support market integration,” emphasised Dr. David Bergvinson, Icrisat Director General.

http://www.waltainfo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18871:icrisat-to-take-up-agri-research-in-dry-lands-of-ethiopia&catid=52:national-news&Itemid=291

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Ethiopia’s stellar growth: Lessons for Kenya – and perhaps South Africa

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Addis Ababa: April 24, 2015 – 

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At first glance you know that the head-office of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia on Addis Ababa’s Churchill Road must have been built in the 1960s. The tatty concrete rotunda has no redeeming features – save, as it turns out, its staff.

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Inside the tellers are organised in a giant circle, the commercial signs advertising a plethora of money transfer agencies.

“You want to buy a bond for the Grand Renaissance Dam?” exclaimed the startled assistant. “Come with me,” she smiled, showing the way to her colleagues working the inner ring behind the tellers. Such old-world naiveté is unlikely in most places, where security takes precedence over service. “Sit down,” she said, while organising a conversion from dollars into birr.

Construction of the controversial Grand Renaissance Dam, known as the GERD, on the Blue Nile near to the Sudanese border began in 2011. When completed in 2017 it will produce 6,000 MW, making it the largest hydro-electric plant in Africa. With the turbines and other electrical equipment to be funded by Chinese banks to the tune of $1.8 billion, the remainder of the $4.8 billion bill is to be met with the Ethiopian government, financed in part through the bond, targeting diaspora and local Ethiopians.
A group of three Chinese men scuttled past as the bond forms were completed, pushing a trolley on which rested three bulky black holdalls.

Available in amounts from 25 to 1 million birr, and with a dollar denominated option, not many individual foreigners have so far taken up the offer. “You are the second,” said Eyob, the bank manager, “we had an Italian in here some time back”. An Italian construction firm is building the dam, memories of darker days of Abyssinian invasions forgiven. Indeed, Ethiopians exhibit a remarkable pragmatism about their history, intent mostly on looking forward, not back. As one official publication notes about the “Italian colonialists”, they “made enormous efforts to modernise the country with the construction of the first proper road network and numerous public buildings”.

“You want interest?” Eyob asks, frowning, before filling out the colourful bond certificate. A little surprised at that request, he was more perplexed by the stipulated date of repayment. “Why 2025?” he laughed. “Most Ethiopians give just five years”.

Without much in the way of natural resources and, since the independence of Eritrea in May 1991, landlocked, and with its population rising fast towards the hundred million mark, Ethiopia’s development options seem limited.

Yet, so far the absence of natural resource driven growth has proven an advantage.

Over the last decade, Ethiopia has emerged as one of the fastest-growing – perhaps the fastest-growing – economies in Africa. Even though ‘double-digit’ growth has become something of an official mantra, independent appraisals still put it at over ten percent from 2003-13, double the sub-Saharan average.

Growth is driven, rather, by a determined government policy of creating the conditions for development, notably through a massive level of infrastructural investment.

Ambitious plans are afoot for a massive expansion of the rail network, hitherto confined to the ancient railway from the port at Djibouti to Addis Ababa, which has now been upgraded from narrow to standard gauge, which should be in operation by 2016. The 700-km line is being built at a cost of $4-billion by Chinese companies. Ethiopia is seeking to have 5,000 km of new rail lines working across the country by 2020. A national fibre optic cable system is being laid to help rectify one of the major weaknesses, in telecoms. In addition to the GERD, there are a number of smaller but still significant hydro-electric projects underway elsewhere, notably on the Gibe River in the south of the country.

Funding for infrastructure has come from a mix of sources: improvements in tax revenue collection (businesses routinely complain what a pest the tax authorities have become), some concessional financing (mainly from China) and other donors who provide around $3 billion annually from grants and loans, and domestic borrowing. Local banks are required by government to convert up to 27 percent of their holdings into government bonds to finance infrastructure, including the grand dam, this pressure-point one of the reasons why Ethiopia has so far not permitted foreign banks to open operations. What effectively amounts to a forced loan to the state has created something of a local banking liquidity crisis.

Now the key question is whether Ethiopia can create or attract the level of private sector productive enterprise needed to turn this infrastructure into the basis for a functioning modern economy.

Private sector development and growth has rhetorically, at least, become a government refrain. As the state minister of finance Ahmed Shide puts it, “success to our plans will now be determined by the response of the private sector. Investment is key in this. This process can’t just be led by the state which can’t itself generate wealth; it can only facilitate it.”

In this, amidst the debate about whether “Africa can be the next China” as manufacturing input (especially labour) costs rise in Asia, Ethiopia “wants”, he says, to be the light manufacturing hub of Africa. Ethiopian workers cost one-tenth the price of those in China for example. This view is a refreshing departure from South Africa-speak about not “struggling to work in sweat shops”.

The establishment of “Shoe City” by the Huajian Group in the eastern industrial zone, now employing 3,200 workers making 180,000 pairs a month, came about as a result of a personal invitation to the company’s founder to open a plant by Ethiopia’s late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi during a 2011 trip to China.

There are six such industrial zones now in Ethiopia, offering low or zero tariffs on imported manufactured goods, and tax holidays of up to seven years. Another 20 Chinese firms have joined Huajian in the eastern zone, 37kms from Addis.

Kenya, bordering on Ethiopia to the south, has similarly ambitious infrastructure aims. A new $25-billion port complex is planned for Lamu. A $3.5-billion standard-gauge railway is currently under construction from Mombasa to Nairobi and, possibly, beyond.

There are other parallels. Both have young populations, Kenya’s median age at 19 versus 17 in Ethiopia. Both are highly dependent on agriculture (comprising half of GDP and absorbing 85 percent of the workforce in Ethiopia’s case, 30 percent and 75 percent in Kenya’s). They run similar budget deficits, levels of public debt are equally high above 50 percent of GDP, and poverty in both remains around 40 percent of the population.

There are differences, of course. While Ethiopia is landlocked, Kenya is the gateway to South Sudan, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Congo in eastern Africa. Kenya’s nominal per capita GDP is, at $1,250, more than twice that of Ethiopia (US$ 570 estimated for 2014). Nudging 100 million, Ethiopia has more than double Kenya’s population, and twice the land area.
But most notably, the dissimilarity centres around security and governance, key factors affecting respective development trajectory, whatever Kenya’s comparative advantages of geography and arithmetic.

Perhaps the most important reason for Ethiopia’s stellar growth performance is its political stability. It has, for a start, a state that works – in striking contrast to many other African countries such as, most obviously, Kenya or Nigeria. The oldest state in Africa, and the only one to retain its independence through the colonial era, it rests on engrained habits of command and obedience. This creates its own problems, but it does mean that the government has a capacity, shared by few African states, to make and effectively implement policies.

Especially over the last decade, since a political crisis in 2005 that raised serious questions about its survival, the government in Addis Ababa that seized power from the Derg military junta in May 1991 has devoted itself single-mindedly to creating a ‘developmental state’ based on east Asian models. This is most visible in the dramatic expansion in the scale and quality of the road network, and urban development not only in Addis Ababa – now a megalopolis of some seven million people – but in cities throughout the country. Further education has likewise boomed, with over thirty universities geared especially to turning out graduates in engineering and natural sciences, though their quality is certainly questionable.

This reflects extraordinary leadership in Meles, perhaps the closest thing Africa has enjoyed to Lee Kuan Yew – super smart, pragmatic and with an authoritarian streak. The difference between the two may be just the sheer scale of the challenge faced in 1991: Ethiopia’s already poor infrastructure, spread over a massive territory, had been all but destroyed by a combination of the civil war and revolutionary mismanagement.

Better governance also means less corruption and better value for money.

Take the tale of two railways. The cost of the Kenyan line for the first 485-kilometre phase from Mombasa to Nairobi reportedly rose by $1.2 billion between July 2012 and November 2013 when the first track was laid, to $3.5-billion. For Kenya, rolling stock that includes 56 diesel locomotives, 1,620 freight wagons, 40 passenger coaches and one simulator were to cost five times more than Ethiopia’s 35 electric engines, six diesel shunting locomotives, 1,100 freight wagons, 30 passenger coaches and one simulator. The cost premium is likely partly down to the specific route engineering challenges, and partly a “little something” else.

Better governance also means better security. Both countries have a significant Somali population, around six percent of the totals. And both neighbour Somalia where they have deployed troops in trying to deal with Al-Shabaab.

To Addis Ababa’s north-east, Lalibela’s 11 medieval churches hewn from surrounding rock hint at Ethiopia’s religious tapestry, made up 40 percent each of Orthodox Christians and Muslims, the bulk of the remainder Protestant Christians and tree-worshipping pagans.

Lalibela’s World Heritage site is a labyrinth of passageways, tunnels, and confines, carved over 800 years ago by the Zagwe dynasty – the architectural intricacies a metaphor not only for Jerusalem, as intended, but for the delicate and complex management of Ethiopia’s contemporary religious and ethnic fault-lines.

Ethiopia’s prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, says that his government’s understanding of tolerance does not mean ‘a religion-free society’. ‘Rent-seekers’ using religion as ideology, he warns, have to be ‘checked’.

Despite the mutual Somali link, it is Kenya which has felt the domestic blowback as the Islamists have struck at soft targets from shopping-centres to, now, universities. The level of government control through its armed forces, competent intelligence services and the co-option of the domestic Somali leadership makes this less likely – indeed, so far fortunately unprecedented – in Ethiopia.

Lalibela receives 60,000 foreign tourists annually, ten percent of Ethiopia’s fast-climbing total. The tourist numbers to Kenya are, by comparison, falling fast, hard hit by terrorist attacks, from 1.7 million visitors in the mid-2000s to under a million today.

Terrorists require usually an active support base to be effective. By playing local Somali clans against each other, and through rigorous security screening, especially along the Somali border, where Ethiopia has created a 100 km buffer zone with troops patrolling both sides, the threat has been blunted. “The federal police is catching insurgents every day,” says one foreign security specialist based in Addis. Not surprising, since it is “Addis where Shabaab would most like to place a bomb if it had a free pass.”

Other practical lessons for Kenya from Ethiopia and others in addressing security in an insurgency revolve around the importance of ensuring effective integration all sources of intelligence, and the need to generate trust in the army and people so people feel confident that they will be safe if they inform on the insurgent or terrorist group and the military and police will use their information properly to protect them. As Nigeria’s former president Olusegun Obasanjo has put it about the importance of this aspect, “Trying to fight terrorism without intelligence is like trying to box blindfolded”.

Al-Shabaab’s failure in Ethiopia is not because its Somali population is more committed to the Ethiopian cause than the Kenyan Somali minority, as some would argue. The Ethiopian system of the kebele – or neighbourhood – ensures that newcomers are carefully scrutinised and, if suspect, reported to the authorities. Ethiopia’s success at fighting terrorism is not down to luck or to natural barriers of geography and topography.

While it has a tradition of not sharing information with willing international partners, Ethiopia’s security sector is effective, using its capacity and resources to best effect, very little being squandered through corruption.

If and when Al-Shabaab is defeated in Somalia, reportedly reflected one member of the Ethiopian security forces, “Some will go to ISIS, and some to Syria. And some,” he says, “will go to Kenya” since with a little bit of money, the security forces will turn the other way.

All this does not mean Ethiopia has no development potholes or security threats.

For one, the in-built suspicion of foreigners (as seen, for example, in the prohibition on foreign banks) always makes long-term investment more risky. A second is an in-built suspicion of the profit-motive of business, relating to the Marxian background of the current generation of leadership, where the party is above the private sector. Ethiopia has not yet really liberalised either its economy or its politics. Rather it has created space for the private sector within a highly state-dominated and regulated economy. The paradox is that the government is looking for long-term committed investors, which at the same time pushes investors into taking short-term, often trading oriented positions with expectations of quick (high) returns.

Ethiopia, with its strong government and weak private sector provides a mirror image of Kenya, with its dynamic private sector and largely dysfunctional governance structure.

Where Kenya has a vibrant telecoms sector exemplified by M-Pesa, Ethiopia’s network is mostly down. The Kenyan paradox is that it is unable to translate private sector dynamism into public sector capacity because of the corrosive effect of poor governance – in a word, corruption.

At some point, the law of averages says that Al-Shabaab will eventually manage a terrorist spectacular in Ethiopia since, as the saying has it, the government has to be “effective 100 percent of the time, while the enemy has to be effective just once”. Regardless, Ethiopia’s prospects look somewhat better than its neighbours. For it owns its recovery and its security. DM

Clapham is at the Centre of African Studies at Cambridge University, and has written extensively on Ethiopia; Mills heads the Johannesburg-based Brenthurst Foundation. This is based on a Brenthurst Discussion Paper resulting from field-work in Ethiopia.

http://www.fanabc.com/english/index.php/component/k2/item/2779?Itemid=674

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PM Lays Foundation for Hawassa Industrial Park

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Addis Ababa: April 23, 2015 –

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Favorable conditions are being created to make the industrial sector take a leading role in the country’s economy, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said.

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Speaking at the laying of cornerstone for the construction of an industrial park in Hawassa city today, the Prime Minister said the government is focused in making farmers and pastoralists benefit from their products by undertaking improved agricultural-based development in the country.

The current growth level of the country would enable to create a favorable condition for the laying of foundation for the steady transfer of the nation to industrial development, he said.

Industrial Parks Development Corporation Board Chairperson, Arkebe Equbay, said on his part that Hawassa is one of the places selected for the development of industrial parks at federal level.

The reason for the selection of Hawassa is the close to five million population of the city within a periphery of 50-70 kilometers and close to three million labor force.

The various institutions around the city, including Hawassa University, would also provide training for human resources that could be employed by the factories, he added.

The construction of the first phase of the park on 250,000 hectares of land would be finalized by December 2015, he indicated.

According to the chairperson, the economic structure of the country will be changed in the coming 10 years and the manufacturing sector would play a key role by employing 1.5 million persons in medium and large industries which would be a big jump from the current employment of more than 35,000 employees in the industry.

SNNPR Chief Administrator Desse Dalke said on his part the construction of the industrial park will play a crucial role in making Hawassa a center for industrial development.

He also expressed the readiness of the regional state to provide land, infrastructure and the other necessary things for the construction of the industrial park.

http://www.fanabc.com/english/index.php/component/k2/item/2776?Itemid=674

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Addis Metro to commence en mass test rides on Monday

Addis Ababa: April 29, 2015  – 

The Ethiopian Railways Corporation disclosed that the Kality – Meskel Square route (which has access to a temporary supply of electricity) will conduct the trial session by transporting residents of the city.

The project carried out its first test ride a few months back with the presence of FDRE Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

It was noted that all 41 trams have arrived in Addis to begin operations. The maintenance garages for the trains have also been constructed in the city. All control and facilitation installations along the railway have been constructed, including power control sub stations.

Part of the objective of the trial session is to create awareness regarding the proper usage of the railway to the public.

http://www.fanabc.com/english/index.php/news/item/2803-addis-metro-to-commence-en-mass-test-rides-on-Monday

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MoM Says Mining Sector Helping Transformation of Economy

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Addis Ababa: April 29, 2015  –

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The mining sector is contributing hugely to the transformation of the economy by supplying minerals required as industrial inputs amply, Ministry of Mines (MoM) announced.

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MoM Communication Director, Bacha Faji said the mining sector has been accelerating the transformation of the country to industrial-led economy by producing minerals extensively.

The director, who recalled the acute shortage of cement in the country due to lack of mineral inputs for cement production, said the mining sector is now producing huge inputs such as lime stone, gypsum, tantalum and other minerals.

Besides, it is currently encouraging the establishment of factories near localities where the mineral inputs for them are found, he added.

According to Bacha, 2.255 billion USD was obtained over the past four years from gold, tantalum and other minerals.

Revenues from minerals increased from 12.7 billion USD in 2009 to the current 30.87 billion USD, the director stated.

Of the more than 315 companies engaged in the sector, 66 are foreign-owned, it was learned.

The sector has directly and indirectly created jobs for over one million citizens, it was also indicated.

http://www.fanabc.com/english/index.php/component/k2/item/2796?Itemid=674

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Ministry, CSO Discuss about Creating Transparency in Extractive Industries

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Addis Ababa: April 29, 2015 –

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Ministry of Mines and Civil Society organization (CSO) today held discussion about how to create clarity and transparency in Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

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During the discussion State Minister of Mines, Alemu Sime said Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is an international strategy in which the government is working jointly with companies engaged in exploration of minerals   as well as civil society organization.

Transparency on revenues the government obtains from companies engaged in the sector will help to improve the revenue and ensure the benefits of citizens from the sector, according Alemu.

According to the state minster, the sector is striving to get additional foreign currency and to create more jobs through adding values on precious minerals and others minerals during the second GTP.

Civil Society Organization Representative in Multi Stakeholders Group (MSG), Eyasu Yimer said on his part this platform is arranged to discuss where we are now in implementing the initiative nationally.

When the country becomes full membership of the EITI it could create transparency in the sector and there will be a high probability to build trust among the government, citizens, local community and companies, he indicated.

Additionally, it will also help both government and companies to evaluate their performance because they would be expected to produce report.

http://www.fanabc.com/english/index.php/component/k2/item/2794?Itemid=674

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Ethiopia’s old city eyes hosting dozens of new industries

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One of the old cities of Ethiopia, Debre Berhan, which is founded 1456 at a distance of 120 kilometers north of the capital Adddis Ababa, eyes 40 new industries to start construction this Ethiopian Fiscal Year – before October 2015.

This is indicated by Getaneh Zeke, Mayor of the city over the weekend, who said at the ground laying ceremony of seven industries, which have a total cost of $125 million and will take 9.5 hectares to construct.

The event which was held last Friday May 24, had initially planned to see the laying of cornerstone of 15 industries, but had to be scaled down to seven to fit in with the day’s schedule.

“The 15 industries have registered capital of $490 million, and will create 20,000 permanent employment opportunity” stated Zeke adding that this will fasten the  city’s and region’s industrialization, and boost Ethiopia’s aim  to reach middle income status.

The City reportedly has made serious changes in running the bureaucracy, with land being given in possibly as soon as one day if requirements are fulfilled.

Electricity supply

Zeke also revealed that as some of the industries need significant electricity the city liaising with the federal government to secure uninterrupted power supply some of the seven industries whose corner stone was laid.

Juniper Glass (Private Limited Company) PLC which reportedly will cost $50 million will need 10 Mega Watts (MW) to operate while; My Shoes factory is expected to need in excess of 8 MW.

The other industries comprising of metallurgy, PVC factory, pharmaceuticals, Tractor assembly, Pulp and Paper are also expected to need significant electricity power to operate fully once construction is completed.

Amhara region Chief Gedu Endargachew on his part stated as the agricultural led industrialization drive is starting to showing fruition signaling the country’s growth isn’t just in some places but throughout the country to include industries outside of Addis Ababa and its surrounding.

“The Awash-Woldiya rail line being built by Turkish firm Yapi Merkezi is just is 93 kilometers from Debre Berhan,” stated Andargachew adding that with a road being constructed from Debre Birhan- Ankober Awash, this will make it even closer to the rail line and eventually Djibouti port.

http://www.waltainfo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18952:ethiopias-old-city-eyes-hosting-dozens-of-new-industries&catid=52:national-news&Itemid=291

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New route opens promising future for specialty coffee

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A new asphalt road that links the source of Ethiopian specialty coffee grower of Bensa Woreda of the Sidama Zone with  the regional center of Hawassa was inaugurated in the presence of top government officials on Tuesday April 21.

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The 51 km concrete asphalt road project is constructed by a local contractor Alemayehu Ketema General Contractor at a cost of 427 million birr. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn inaugurated the road that links three weredas of the Sidama Zone with the SNNPS regional state seat.

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The contractor was pressed hard to complete the assignment on schedule as the project stretches  across difficult terrain and a long rainy season that is common in the SNNPS had reduced the pace of the work. A revision of the project’s design that was made after the contract was awarded was another challenge on the work.

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The road that reaches  Bensa will surely have  high economic value to making possible transportation of  the high quality native coffee produce and other grains to markets. The new asphalt road connects Aleta Wendo area with Daye town. Bensa area is famous for its specialty coffee reserves which has a high premium in the international market.

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At the inaugural ceremony, the prime minister said that the first grade coffee  the Woreda produces will now be easily delivered to central and international markets.

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Ethiopian Roads Authority, the state organization that administers federal road networks, disclosed that the next phase of the project, which is under design study, will further connect Daye town with Nansobo via Chire with a 68km long road route.  This road connection can have considerable economic relevance for Daye town opening it up to markets and connecting the town with the regional capital Hawassa and several other towns in the region and Bale Zone of the Oromia regional state.

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Several ministers had attended the opening, accompanied by a large crowed of the locality’s dwellers who were ecstatic.  The prime minister has also attended a program at Daye town that marks laying of the corner stone for a higher education facility that will be  managed by Hawassa University.

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Residents of Daye asked the prime minister to make the facility an independent university instead of a campus. Hailemariam had promised that the facility will be upgrade to a university in the future.

http://www.capitalethiopia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5104:new-route-opens-promising-future-for-specialty-coffee-&catid=54:news&Itemid=27

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ETTE to construct new duty-free mall

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The Ethiopian Tourism Trading Enterprise (ETTE) is poised to construct a grand  duty-free mall near Bole International Airport with the view of  expanding its duty-free retailing and  the provision of  new products.

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“We decided to expand our duty-free businesses in relation  with the massive expansion project of the airport terminal,” Assefa Guya, General Manager of ETTE  told Capital. When the expansion project is complete,  the enterprise can supply a new pack of duty-free products for customers. Heavy duty furniture, electronics equipments, and vehicles are some of the items the enterprise plans to  add onto the list of availables at the duty-free mall.

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Previously, the enterprise had  supplied  duty-free vehicles for individuals who have tax exemption rights for a short time before the service was discontinued.  The enterprise can earn hard currency from the sale of new vehicles which are normally supplied by motor and engineering companies at home.  Embassies,  international organizations, diplomats, and   expatriate workers are rightful bodies in Ethiopia that can  import vehicles free of duty.

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ETTE is administered by  the Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervising Agency, a state  regulatory body that controls  public enterprises.
The enterprise, which  is one of the leading public enterprises that  fetch considerable hard currency to the state, has also plans  to open a training center at its workshop located in the north eastern outskirts of Addis Ababa. The construction work of  the training center has already commenced.  The center will train local people in hand crafts. The enterprise makes over one million dollars every month from the  sale of duty-free goods.  And  in the past ten years, its  profit has grown by three folds, the general manager has said.

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A week ago, the enterprise has commenced celebrating its Golden Jubilee throwing a paintings exhibition at the National Theater. The exhibition held under the  motto ‘Ethiopia and Ethiopians’ is on display  for the seventh time and all the paints are commissioned works the  enterprise had sponsored.  Assefa said ETTE will  celebrate  its anniversary with a series of programs.

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The enterprise has a department that specializes in making  hand-made articles.  “We are producing all types of cultural products including pottery and hand-made chairs and tables that are produced  from bamboo and wood,” he said. The enterprise has ten duty-free shops throughout the capital city  including the famous outlets at Bole International Air Port, AU and ECA. ETTE’s  biggest duty-free shop is housed in its head quarter edifice  located at Hayahulet area. The enterprise has ten art craft shops, one supermarket, and one handcrafts and paintings production center at Ayat area.

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Last year, the enterprises  ripped 306 million birr from sales. “Even though our business is very big compared with other public enterprises, we have a big potential to expand more,” Assefa said.

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The general manager noted that the tourism business, mainly conference tourism is growing significantly in the past years, and in relation   with the tourism growth, the enterprise’s turnover is also growing significantly. He said that the enterprise  has a plan to expand its business, and  currently, it is working to be one of the top five duty-free enterprises on the continent.

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“Our goal is not only doing business but reflecting the heritage, culture and history of Ethiopia,” Assefa explained. The enterprise  uses mostly local inputs to produce craftworks, traditional clothes and traditional furniture. “We sell the crafts with local and hard currency, while the duty-free products are exclusively sold to  foreigners,” he said. “The enterprise is now growing  and its paid up capital has to be increased, while we are undertaking a study to expand the investment,” Assefa said. “We plan to expand the export volume  of handcraft products,” he added.

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The enterprise also promotes  Ethiopia’s  tourism  internationally in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
ETTE  links up with cottage  crafts people  to get   inputs including traditional wears and furniture for the products it makes.
ETTE commenced its service 50 years ago in a small shop at Bole International Airport. Today, it has 10 duty-free and 10 art craft shops, one supermarket, four liquor shops, and one pharmacy.
The enterprise is one of the oldest duty-free service providers in Africa, while it has a business tie  with 60 international companies.

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The duty free stores ETTE operates are all retail outlets that are exempted from paying  certain local or national taxes and duties, provided that the stores sale the goods to travelers who will take the items  out of the country. Which products can be sold duty-free as well as the manner of sale, and the process of calculating the duty or refund vary among countries.

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The global duty-free sales are forecast to reach US 73.6 billion by 2019, growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.6%. Personal care and drinks will continue to be the categories with highest expenditure in the Duty Free market. The Asia-Pacific region will fuel growth in the global market with sales reaching to US 37.6 billion in 2019. Growing low cost tourism, the expansion of space and the number of duty free stores in various airports, and wider brand availability will enhance channel sales.

http://www.capitalethiopia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5103:ette-to-construct-new-duty-free-mall&catid=54:news&Itemid=27

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Ethiopia’s progress and zeal

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By Jacey Fortin in Addis Ababa

No rest for the construction workers on the future Addis Ababa light rail. Photo©DANIEL GETACHEW/EPA/Corbis

The ‘developmental army’ of Ethiopians recruited by the government has created real momentum, with the economy growing at a double-digit pace each year for nearly a decade. But many people are still struggling, and regular citizens complain about the lack of freedom and top-down initiatives.

From his hilly vantage point out- side the major city of Adama, Lema Mangesha can look in any direction and watch his country developing.

Local agricultural officials have lied about reports

Over the past 10 years, the 42-year-old farmer has seen new electrical lines strung up over his land.

He has witnessed the construction of three nearby factories: one for metal, one for cement and one for tyres.

His northern horizon is dominated by a wind farm erected about two years ago.

But while some of his neighbours have got jobs at the new factories, Lema still cultivates teff, barley and wheat.

Despite the power lines that criss-cross his fields, his home is not connected to the national grid. “Development has brought changes,” he says. “That doesn’t mean it’s enough.”

With official annual economic growth rates averaging about 10% during the past decade, Ethiopia is pooling every available resource to invest in roads, railways and industrial zones.

It boasts Africa’s largest airline, is working on Africa’s biggest dam and is about to complete its first urban light rail system in Addis Ababa.

Expansion as encroachment

Ethiopia is an overwhelmingly rural country, and Lema is among the 80% of Ethiopians who live outside of urban areas.

And like most rural dwellers, he comes from a family of smallholders.

The slow creep of development has hemmed him in on all sides, and the two hectares he works will not be enough to split between his three children. “When a person has a family, he has to expand his property. There’s no way for us to do that,” Lema complains.

In Africa’s second-most populous country, the government’s ambitions go far beyond gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Broad-based development is at the heart of its plans.

Officials also talk of reclaiming Ethiopia’s status as one of the world’s most advanced civilizations, a legacy that goes back to the Axumite empire and continues into modern times, when Ethiopia was the only African country to repel European colonial armies.

Today, the ruling party pursues modernisation with a relentless drive and authoritarian tools. But the results of its efforts are clear.

Growth has been relatively inclusive, and Ethiopia has achieved its Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty and reducing child mortality by two-thirds.

There are also mega-projects: capital-intensive ventures that aim to meet the infrastructure needs as fast as possible, even if it means going into debt.

“There is this conviction among outsiders that Ethiopia is poor and cannot fund such huge projects,” says state finance minister Abraham Tekeste.

“The figures we have for the last three years show that Ethiopia is still poor and the majority of people are still struggling, but still they can really save and postpone consumption for a very good cause.”

When it comes to electricity, for instance, he says just over 50% of households have access.

But Ethiopia’s generation capacity of 2,300MW will get a huge boost when the Grand Renaissance Dam – financed by citizens’ bond buying, electricity sales and local borrowing – comes online in a few years to add another 6,000MW to the grid.

In a bid to emulate the ‘Asian tigers’ that dominate global manufacturing, Ethiopia is constructing several industrial zones to attract foreign corporations.

“Manufacturing is top of the agenda as far as the government is concerned,” says state industry minister Mebrahtu Meles, pointing out that the resulting exports will bring a much-needed boost to Ethiopia’s foreign-currency reserves.

In this and other sectors, he adds, it is up to the government to lead the way until the private sector is capable of taking over: “Today, unfortunately, so-called demand and supply, or the invisible hand if you like, does not work. Ethiopia is emerging. It’s a new, infant economy, so we have to make sure that gaps will not be there.”

When it comes to agriculture, the government’s programmes include a call centre where farmers can get advice.

The ruling party also knows the value of social ties. It uses favoured farmers like Gadisa Gobena, 65, as exemplars.

On the 400ha under his control out- side the central town of Ambo, Gadisa grows certified hybrid seeds for sale.

“Only about 20% of farmers here are using certified seed,” he says. “We are very behind.” Gadisa also supports a government programme called five- to-one, where farmers form quintets to assist and monitor each other. It helps them adopt best practices, he says.

“With five men in one group, even a man who doesn’t use certified seed is forced to.”

Mobilising citizens

The five-to-one programme is in line with the government’s concept of a ‘developmental army’, whereby citizens are recruited to implement government policies.

For Adama resident Lema and many others like him, the project has been beneficial. But the groupings also serve another purpose: “The five-to-one leader forwards party information to us. We don’t debate it because it comes from a higher level,” he explains.

Ethiopia’s ability to mobilise its citizens it what sets the country apart, says Tewodros Hagos, head of politics for the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

“Ethiopia doesn’t have much money. We cannot do soil and water conservation programmes without voluntary
participation of the peasant,” he says, referring to projects done in Tigray using ‘developmental army’ principles. “Ultimately, people know they will benefit.”

The TPLF is the ruling party in the northern region of Tigray.

Outside the organisation’s headquarters in Mekelle, loud music memorialises fighters who helped overthrow the Derg military administration in 1991.

Key figures like late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and influential deputy premier Debretsion Gebremichael were among the masterminds of that revolutionary struggle.

Today, Tigrayans are often accused of dominating Ethiopian politics – something Tewodros dismisses as “propaganda”.

The ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), is a multi-ethnic grouping of four parties representing each of the county’s main regions.

Ethiopia’s foreign minister Tedros Adhanom describes a “change of mind- set” in government just as he was becoming the state minister of health in 2004.

Officials decided not to let limited resources thwart their ambitions, he says. Instead, they would set high goals and then work with international partners to find funding along the way.

It was “really thinking big, believing that you can do things differently,” he says. “That kind of mentality was really the paradigm shift.”

But critics say that the EPRDF’s single-mindedness leaves no room for debate.

The country’s outer edges are home to many semi-pastoralist communities.

Their lifestyles are endangered by mega-projects like sugar plantations in north-eastern Afar and irrigation schemes in the southern Omo, both of which require resettlement into villages for what the government assumes will be a more productive way of life.

Journalists imprisoned

“Eventually, the lifestyle is going to change,” says the TPLF’s Tewodros of pastoralism, adding that any relocation is voluntary.

“They have their resources. Is it not good to encourage them to use their resources instead of others coming and using it? Is that a crime?”

Long-simmering conflicts in other regions – like the Ogaden, populated mostly by ethnic Somalis, and Gambela, where Nuers and Anuaks jostle for dominance – make these outer reaches even more difficult for Addis to control.

Human rights concerns are not limited to the peripheries.

In Africa, Ethiopia is second only to Eritrea in the number of journalists imprisoned.

The 2005 elections delivered disputed gains to an opposition coalition and resulted in a fatal crackdown on demonstrators.

Today, Girma Seifu of the opposition party Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ), the lone opposition member in a parliament of 547, says the government is not remotely serious about allowing a multi-party democracy or even permitting EPRDF coalition members to deviate from the script.

“This is a unitary country,” he says. “And these people are very inefficient, even though they have been around for 24 years. They are still learning by doing, and they are unable to produce human capital. You see the same faces from 24 years ago.”

A national vote is approaching in May. Girma says he will not run again because the election board has dismantled the UDJ by recognising a fringe member as its leader and police have barred the doors to the party’s main office.

With the government all but certain to retain power for at least the next five years, officials say that they recognise the importance of protecting their founding ideals.

Corruption is an oft-cited threat to the EPRDF’s efficacy, but Tewodros says all of the regional parties combat this through constant self-evaluation.

There is also a problem of credibility. In its zeal for meeting production targets, officials have been known to exaggerate reports of progress.

This leads to inconsistencies: agricultural productivity claims that raise eyebrows, resettlement schemes that fail to deliver on services promised and factories that are commissioned despite technical problems.

Economic figures are also suspect, and the International Monetary Fund has disagreed with Ethiopia’s GDP growth figures for years.

Pressure to meet targets

Hailemichael Gebreselassie, a 30-year-old TPLF member employed by the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, says these failures are the not the fault of the party but of lower-level officials who feel pressure to meet targets.

“Local agricultural officials have lied about reports,” he says while sipping coffee at a pavement cafe in Mekelle.

“Last year, they were given a budget to dig wells for irrigation. They reported to their superiors that they had already finished, but they hadn’t done it.”

He has also seen first hand how projects like the Grand Renaissance Dam have sapped credit for private enterprises at his local branch of the state-owned bank and how budgeted funds are sometimes siphoned off to pay for personal expenses.

“That doesn’t mean you give up on the party,” he adds. “We should discuss these things to make it better.”

The government’s plans and mega-projects will continue to encroach the livelihoods of people like Lema, who knows his small farm in Adama is becoming increasingly inadequate as the years go by.

But he says he is thankful for plenty of things that have appeared over the past decade: new wells for clean water, a health centre nearby and schools for his children to attend.

Those children are already taking work on larger farms and in the city.

“People who are deep party members know more about what is being done,” he says of the government’s developmental ambitions.

“From my perspective, from the outside, all I know is that this place looks better than it did before.”

http://www.theafricareport.com/East-Horn-Africa/ethiopias-progress-and-zeal.html

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Ethiopia Registering Remarkable Achievements, Says UNDP 2014 Report

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Addis Ababa April 30/2015 –

Ethiopia has registered remarkable achievements in economic and social changes, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) said.

The United Nation Development Program (UNDP) 2014 Report which was released yesterday stated that the nation’s per capita income reached 632 USD in 2014 from 171 USD in 2005.

The Human Development Index (HDI) of Ethiopia is also growing by an average of 3.5 percent over the past 10 years.

UNDP Resident Representative, Eugene Owusu said on the occasion that the country, which has been investing on education, health, social protection, essential infrastructure, water and sanitation activities, has increased primary education coverage to 85.7 percent from the previous 68 percent.

The regional Human Development Index (HDI) in Ethiopia has shown significant improvement in the past decades.

Ethiopia also registered remarkable achievements in health by immunizing 87 percent of its children.

Life expectancy is in the range of 57 and 62 years, except in Harari State which has the highest expectancy at 70.5 years.

According to the report, the regional disparities in Human Development Index (HDI) values indicate that four Regional States which are Afar, Somali, Amhara and Oromia have the lowest HDI’S, below the national HDI of 0.461.

Meanwhile UNDP report stressed that Ethiopia should work hard to improve good governance and political participation.

http://www.ena.gov.et/en/index.php/economy/item/723-ethiopia-registering-remarkable-achievements-says-undp-2014-report

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Efforts under way to make industrial sector leading contributor in Ethiopia’s GDP

Addis Ababa: April 30, 2015 –

Ethiopia, Argentina Agree to Boost Relations

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Addis Ababa April 30/2015 –

Ethiopia and Argentina have agreed to boost their bilateral relations.

This was disclosed today after State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Berhane Gebre-Kristos, and his Argentinan counterpart Daniel Fernando Filmus held discussions here in Addis Ababa.

Berhane, who recalled the longstanding bilateral relationship of the two countries, said Argentina and Ethiopia have agreed to foster the agreement they concluded earlier in technical cooperation, agriculture, science and technology.

Argentina’s State Minister Daniel Fernando Filmus said on his part the relationship between Argentina and Ethiopia is at its best.

Argentina would further work to implement the agreement signed in areas of technical cooperation with Ethiopia, he added.

He also said Argentina is very eager to boost diplomatic, economic and cultural relations with Ethiopia.

http://www.ena.gov.et/en/index.php/politics/item/724-ethiopia-argentina-agree-to-boost-relations

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Why foreign-educated Ethiopians are returning home

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In 2011 business executive Blen Abebe visited her country of birth, Ethiopia, for the first time in nearly 20 years. She grew up in the US and her memories of Ethiopia from the 1990s were of an under-developed country with poor infrastructure. She had built her career working in investment in the US with companies such as Morgan Stanley.

“I first came to visit Ethiopia in 2011 and noticed the country was undergoing a heavy transformation process and the changes were apparent everywhere from the massive infrastructure projects to the overwhelming construction developments all over Addis Ababa.

“That for me was a wakeup call, I needed to be involved and be a part of it,” she says.

These days Abebe works in Addis Ababa as vice president at Schulze Global Investments (SGI), a private equity firm focused on emerging markets. In 2012 SGI launched the Ethiopia Growth and Transformation Fund and has invested in several local enterprises.

Returning home

She is one of many Ethiopian young professionals heading back home after spending years living and studying abroad.

Some left for studies and opportunities, others fled in the 1970s when an oppressive communist government took over. And some children were adopted following the international media coverage of the 1980s famines. Now many are moving back home to help build one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

Michael Tesfaye Hiruy spent 14 years in France and worked with the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission. He returned 14 months ago to start Andalem, an IT consultancy in Ethiopia. Having seen the transformative effects of technology in Europe, 34-year-old Hiruy was motivated to promote the development of an IT ecosystem back home.

Like Abebe and Hiruy, many returnees are opting to start their own businesses or work for foreign companies setting base in Ethiopia. At SGI, for instance, most employees are Ethiopian-Americans, says Abebe, and their mix of international and local knowledge comes in handy when dealing with potential investees.

“The fact that you look Ethiopian and speak the native language means the locals can relate to you,” she explains. “We have had deals that we closed partly because we were on the ground and were more relatable to the locals than other private equity firms. And it makes sense, as most of the family businesses have been passed through generations, so they wouldn’t necessarily trust or be willing to work with you before they get to know you.

“That is why Schulze Global ensures it has people who know both the foreign and local culture.”

Competition for jobs

However, many of those returning are finding it difficult to get jobs.

“As more people living abroad are trying to move back, there are high numbers competing for the same jobs. And it’s not just Ethiopians. Non-Ethiopians as well are trying to come here so competition is intense,” says Abebe.

Fitting into Ethiopia’s business environment after spending many years working in a developed economy is also not easy. UK-educated Samuel Getu says he faced difficulty getting his employees to be fully productive at work. Getu left Ethiopia at age 13 and spent 12 years abroad where he studied for two degrees. When he returned home Getu joined his family’s conglomerate, Get-As International, which is involved in the FMCG, real estate, transportation and hospitality industries.

Different work ethic

“I had to again learn the culture here and understand how people’s mentalities work,” says Getu. “You see, in London if you gave an assignment to an employee you know it will be done in time. But here you have to chase people because they can fail to deliver for no reason. So I’ve devised ways how to approach people and get them to be more, even fully productive.”

Abebe says she needed to make “serious adjustments” due to the different work ethics and general work atmosphere.

And although fitting in was a little easier for returnees who visited Ethiopia constantly during their stay abroad, they too still face challenges.

“I was never disconnected from Ethiopia. I know the business environment well because during the 14 years that I was in France I used to come here every year,” says Hiruy. “But when you work in the private sector in the west there is this pressure of profitability and everything goes fast. You need to re-adapt when you come here. This market is completely different and you have to be patient.”

Nonetheless, Hiruy urges Ethiopian professionals still working abroad to return home to harness the many opportunities opening up.

“I have been telling all my friends to come back because you can feel the impact of your work here,” Abebe concurs. “In the US I worked for big firms like Morgan Stanley and I was just one of the many.

“Despite working on complex projects at the bigger firms it is impossible to know your contribution to the bottom-line numbers, but here I can feel the direct impact for the country, for the company and for our investors.”

http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/why-foreign-educated-ethiopians-are-returning-home/48538/

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Chinese company to build East Africa’s tallest building in Ethiopia

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Addis Ababa: April 30, 2015 –

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The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) has signed an agreement with the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) for the plan to build a 198-meter building for CBE’s headquarters in Ethiopia, which is expected to be the tallest structure in East Africa.

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A signing ceremony of the 46-storey building was held on Tuesday at CBE’s head office in the capital Addis Ababa.

Speaking at the ceremony, CBE President, Bekalu Zeleke, said CBE and CSCEC would be committed to the success of the project as “it reflects the image of both sides.”

“Not only the height, but the overall quality of the building, we believe that this will be one of the best buildings in Africa,” he said.

Song Sudong, general manager for CSCEC in Ethiopia, said at the ceremony that the company has successfully carried out such building projects in China.

“We believe this will be a new window for your country, for your city, and also for East Africa,” said Song, adding the two sides could be “win-win partners” in the future with the success of this project.

http://www.fanabc.com/english/index.php/news/item/2814-chinese-company-to-build-east-africa’s-tallest-building-in-Ethiopia

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EBG Builds Heavy Trucks Maintenance Center in Afar Regional State

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Addis Ababa April 29/2015 – 

http://www.ena.gov.et/en/index.php/economy/item/715-ebg-builds-heavy-trucks-maintenance-center-in-afar-regional-state

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Experts from 100 countries storm Ethiopia for E-Learning Africa conference

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Addis Ababa: April 30, 2015 –

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Poised to provide a unique forum for dialogue, networking and exchange of ideas, e-Learning Africa, the largest and most influential conference on technology-assisted learning and training in Africa, will be bringing together African education and ICT ministers to meet leading global experts to discuss new opportunities and initiatives in the field of technology and learning in the continent.

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Keynote speakers expected at the conference include the Executive Director, Mozilla Foundation, makers of Firefox, Mark Surman and the founder and President of the University of the People, Shai Reshef. Other leading global experts on ICT and education expected are the Prime Minister of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn; Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Ethiopia, Dr. Debretsion Gebremichael;

Minister of Science and Technology, Ethiopia, Demitu Hambisa; Minister of Education, Ethiopia, Shiferaw Shigutie Wolassa; Personal Representative of the German Chancellor Angela Merkell for Africa in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany; Günter Nooke among others.

Being the 10th International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training, the conference will span May 20 to 22, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Annually, the e-Learning Africa conference is reputed for bringing together over 1, 500 people from nearly 100 countries. This year’s edition is organised by the African Union in collaboration with the Government of Ethiopia.

According to the organisers, “A major focus of the conference will be on the role technology-assisted learning can play in helping to develop the skills vital for the future of Africa, by equipping young Africans with entrepreneurial expertise, supporting capacity development in key sectors such as health, and assisting a new generation of entrepreneurs to develop innovative solutions in the education technology sector.

“Other key themes for the conference will include the development and promotion of African research, boosting international cooperation in the education sector between African countries and the rest of the world, and the expansion of open education resources and tools.

“Sessions at the conference will feature presentations on the use of mobile applications for health professionals, the use of ‘gamification’ to bridge the skills and learning gap, an in-depth examination of the latest statistics on ICT in education in Africa, the role of education technology in empowering Africa’s female farmers, online African language learning, removing digital illiteracy, and developing the role of the librarian.”

http://www.fanabc.com/english/index.php/component/k2/item/2807?Itemid=674

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