Ethiopia and Sudan have agreed to jointly develop and administer Port Sudan to facilitate Ethiopia’s access to the port.

Premier Abiy Ahmed, who is on an official working visit to Sudan, has discussed with the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on a range of bilateral and regional issues.

Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyhu said that the two leaders have agreed on four major issues, which are taking into account the countries national interests and principles of shared benefits and added that “The two countries have agreed to develop and jointly manage Port Sudan together.”

Regarding the GERD, President Al-Bashir announced that his country will respect the agreements signed between Ethiopia and Egypt and will provide support for the National Technical Committee.

The two leaders have also agreed during their discussion to turn Assosa into a commercial centre in which Ethiopia and Sudan traders and business persons meet and converse on joint development issues.

Workneh also pointed out that the two leaders have reached a consensus to link Ethiopia and Sudan with a railway line.

In a related development, Prime Minister Abiy has urged President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to assist in the release of Ethiopians who are detained for various reasons in Sudan.

As per the request of the Premier, President Al-Bashir announced during the visit that the Ethiopian prisoners will be released.

Djibouti has already agreed on the sharing of a stake in the port of Djibouti with Ethiopia on Sunday.

Germany’s new foreign affairs chief, Heiko Maas, is in Ethiopia for the first leg of his two-nation African trip. It is his first African mission since taking office barely two months ago. He has held meetings with the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union on a number of mutual issues including financing the A.U.

After meeting with Ethiopian government officials for talks, he is expected to visit Tanzania on the final leg of his trip.

“I am looking forward to my first trip to Africa as German Foreign Minister. We have close and special relations with many African countries. These relations are important to us and we want to foster and expand them”, his office said in a statement on Tuesday, May 2.

During their meeting on May 3, Heiko Maas and Foreign Affairs State Minister HirutZemene discussed the status of the ongoing reform in Ethiopia. Briefing Maas, State Minister Hirut said the transition of power following the resignation of former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn was transparent, democratic and smooth.

As a result, the country has now come back to normalcy and the dialogue between the ruling party and competing parties which started a year ago also manifests the desire to open up the political space, she noted. Recently, there were very serious deliberations and the government is pushing the reform process forward.

Germany’s Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas praised the willingness of the new Prime Minister for dialogue and expressed his best wishes for the success of the country.

The German government also recognizes the leading role of Ethiopia in terms of keeping peace and security in the region and in the continent, Maas stressed.

Ethiopia and Germany have strong cooperation in development, investment, and trade, Hirut said, further calling for Germany investors to invest in renewable energy development in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia and Germany have a longstanding diplomatic relations that goes back to 1905.

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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