Africa’s largest hydro dam project, the 6,450 MW Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), is 66 percent complete.

Bizuneh Tolcha, Director of Public Relations and Communications Directorate at the Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy (MoWIE), said on Saturday the construction of the hydro project is going well and is expected to start partial test power generation soon.

The project is a major part of a massive energy infrastructure project the Ethiopian government is undertaking which aims to see the country’s power generation capacity increase from the current 4,280 MW to 17,300 MW by 2020, he said.

The Ethiopian government has embarked on massive energy projects across the country with a view to succeeding in its plans to make the East African country a light industry hub in Africa and a middle-income economy by 2025.

 GERD, whose construction started in April 2011, is being built at a cost of 4.7 billion U.S. dollars, fully financed from domestic resources and is expected to have a reservoir with a total of 74 billion cubic meters of water upon completion.

The hydro dam, which is being built on Blue Nile river 40 km from Sudanese border, has been billed as a landmark project signalling Ethiopia’s renaissance.

Already, a high voltage electric transmission line built by State Grid of China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Co. Ltd (SGCC) at a cost of 1 billion dollars has been inaugurated, waiting for GERD’s total commissioning to be operational.

Source: Xinhua

 

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed arrived in Sudan this morning for a two-day official visit.

During his visit to Khartoum, he is expected to hold talks with President Omar al-Bashir and with the Sudanese vice-president Hassabo Abdel-Rahman.

The visiting Prime Minister will also visit a number of development projects in the country.

On 21 April, President al-Bashir and Prime Minister Abiy Ali had already met in the Ethiopian city of Bahr Dar on the sidelines of the Tana Forum.

Ethiopia and Sudan are engaged more and more in joint security, military and economic cooperation.

In April 2017, the two sides signed a number of joint agreements to promote economic relations and strengthen ties between the two countries.

Also in February, they signed multiple agreements to further boost up cooperation on a range of development activities.

In March 2012, al-Bashir announced his support to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), saying his government understands the mutual benefits the project could offer Ethiopia and Sudan.

Ethiopia PM Abiy Ahmed visited the Grand Ethiopia Rennaissance Dam (GERD) site yesterday, accompanied by his deputy Demeke Mekonnen and other top government officials.

They were given an update on work at the facility being built in the Benishangul Gumuz regional state. They were conducted around by manager of the project Engineer Simegne Bekele.

Later, Prime Minister Abiy discussed with representatives of residents of the Benishangul Gumuz regional state in the capital city of Asossa.

He responded to various questions raised by the representatives.

In his introductory remark, the Prime Minister said that the people of Benishangul-Gumuz regional state had done a lot jobs for the country, including safeguarding its sovereignty.

During the discussion, the participants asked the government to establish an industrial park in the regional state.

Responding to the question, the Premier said that “it is not feasible to establish a park here since the area is not proximate to rail and air transport services.”

However, it would be more important for factories taking advantage of the abundant resources in the region to be set up. The regional state is rich in mango, sesame, bamboo tree, coal, and marble resources.

As far as infrastructure is concerned, he said, the federal government will make the necessary inspection to alleviate delay in the implementation of budgeted projects, such as roads.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin arrived in Addis Ababa for the first-ever state visit by a President of Israel to Ethiopia.

President Reuven Rivlin welcomed by high-level Ethiopian officials including Ministers during his arrival at Bole International airport.

The President expected to meet with President Mulatu Teshome and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during his three-day official visit to Ethiopia

The Israeli delegation led by the President accompanied by high-level government officials and the business community.

The two countries have a strong foundation cooperating on areas of agriculture, science and technology, education security and fighting against terrorism.

Accordingly, Ethiopia exports coffee, spices, oilseeds, fruit and crops to Israel while capital inputs, pieces of machinery, plastic, metal and chemical productions are among the import items from Israel to Ethiopia.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in July 2016, became the first Israeli Premier to visit Ethiopia.

During his visit, the Prime Ministers of both countries and their delegations discussed ways to increase bilateral cooperation on a series of issues including water, agriculture, communications, tourism and education. Agreements were also signed in science, technology and tourism.

Ethiopia and Israel re-established diplomatic relations in 1992.

The Ethiopian government announced on 30 April that the construction of the Chinese-contracted Bahir Day Industrial Park will be completed within three months.

Amhara region officials made this disclosure while briefing members of the Ethiopian House of People’s and Representatives, the Ethiopian parliament’s lower house.

The agreement for the construction of the industrial park, located in Bahir Dar city, capital of Amhara regional state, was made between China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) and the Ethiopian Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) in June 2017.

Construction of the industrial park, which is expected to create job opportunities for some 20,000 locals, is 37-percent complete.

The IPDC previously disclosed that the 75-hectare industrial park will focus on labour-intensive industries that would export value-added textile and apparel as well as food products.

Members of the lower house have also urged the regional government to conclude the industrial park within its timeframe. The park, being built with over 60 million U.S. dollars, was initially scheduled to be concluded in nine months.

Chinese companies are now major actors in the East African country’s ambition towards becoming manufacturing powerhouse in the African continent.

Built by CCECC, the Hawassa industrial park, located in Ethiopia’s southern city of Hawassa, was completed in a record time of nine months in July 2016.

The flagship industrial park has successfully attracted world-class textile and apparel companies to Ethiopia, including PVH, a company known for marketing diversified portfolio of brands including Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.

Ethiopia and the Netherlands are consolidating their social, political and economic cooperations hand in hand, according to Ambassador of the Netherlands to Ethiopia, His Excellency  Bengt van Loosdrecht.

The two countries are working together in three fields (food security, healthcare and political freedom) which are very important for the growing population that depends on agriculture production.

Ambassador Bengt also says that Ethiopia and the Netherlands have been partners since 1991 when the government of Meles Zenawi took over the power. Since then, the Netherlands felt that there is some important thing happened in this country and proposed projects with a programme of shared growth and vision with all Ethiopians, he added.

Secondly, the Netherlands want to support Ethiopia particularly in basic services like healthcare and education. In this regard, Ambassador Bengt says the two countries are cooperating in Sexual and Reproduction Health Rights (SRHR), which is important for a growing nation.

According to the Ambassador, it is essential to know what women rights are, that they have to access to healthcare and livelihood.

The other support is on good governance for the judicial system to widen democratic space and diversity without wanting to change the system overnight; it is about giving people an option to expressing or voicing their ideas in their country.

It is about establishing fundamental freedoms that Ethiopia has adhered to. The political, diplomatic, economic and social cooperation of the two countries will further continue to reach the highest level.

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U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Donald Yamamoto wrapped up his three East African nations tour on Friday 27 April with a pledge to boost economic and security ties with Ethiopia.

Yamamoto, who started his East Africa tour in Eritrea on Monday 23 April and then went to Djibouti on Wednesday 25 April, arrived in Ethiopia on Thursday with economic, peace, security issues being priorities for discussion.

Speaking to reporters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, Yamamoto said the U.S. administration led by President Donald Trump sees Ethiopia as a key partner in economic and political issues.

“We discussed a wide range of issues particularly initiatives President Trump is looking at positioning the U.S. in making it a clear and critical partner not only for Ethiopia but for all of Africa on economic development, trade and investment,” he told reporters.

Yamamoto especially singled out Ethiopia’s ambitious industrialisation drive which aims to make the country of around 100 million an industrialised middle-income economy by 2025.

“The U.S. government has expressed keen interest to engage in Ethiopia’s industrialisation drive, in addition, they want to help Ethiopia add value on agriculture, to help Ethiopian goods be able to be exported to U.S. market,” he said.

Meles Alem, Spokesperson of Ethiopia Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), told journalists that the U.S. is very keen on a partnership with Ethiopia on specific sectors.

“Yamamoto and his Ethiopian counterparts have reached agreement on how they can proceed on energy and aviation partnership,” said Alem.

The discussion between Yamamoto and Ethiopian officials also touched upon regional and continental peace and security issues.

Alem mentioned discussions focusing on how to end the civil war in the world’s youngest nation, South Sudan, and to counter the threat of Islamic militancy in Somalia.

Ethiopia has been the main base for South Sudan peace talks ever since civil war broke out in December 2013 and is currently hosting about half a million South Sudanese refugees.

Ethiopia is also a major troop contributing nation to a peacekeeping force in Somalia known as the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which since 2007 has been trying to counter the threat of Al-Qaida linked militant group Al-Shabab and support a fragile Somalia federal government based in Mogadishu.

Yamamoto commended Ethiopia’s efforts to bring about peace in South Sudan through its chairmanship of the East Africa Bloc, the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

He pledged full U.S. support for efforts led by Ethiopia and IGAD to end South Sudan’s brutal civil war which has killed tens of thousands and displaced about 4 million people.

Yamamoto also told journalists the U.S. is keen to partner with Ethiopia to help Somalia build institutions and to help security coordination between Somalia federal government and regional administrations.