March 26, 2014

VENTURES AFRICA – To improve the business culture in the country, especially in its private sector, the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectorial Associations (ECCSA) has launched the “Chamber Academy”, in partnership with the Center for International Private Enterprises (CIPE), a US based affiliated organization with US Chamber of Commerce.

The business center aims to strengthen leadership and management skills of the ECCSA and member organizations, and building institution capacity. It will also help to enhance communication, cooperation and networking among business institutions, a statement published on the association website said.

ECCSA has been supporting Ethiopia’s business community for more than 60 years.

Speaking at the formal launching of the institute, ECCSA President Mulu Solomon said the opening of the Academy will help bolster the capacity of the private sector through training for business people and staff of relevant organizations.

He implored the Ethiopian private sector to extricate itself from traditional ways of thinking and practices by adopting modern theories and practice of doing business.

Professor Mohammed Habib, a senior legal professional and instructor at the Addis Ababa University also told Anadolu Agency that international partnership would be vital to disseminate up-to-date business knowledge.

The center of excellence would not only stimulate the activities of the private sector and ensures its steady growth, it will also stimulate the activities of the sector as a major driving force of economic development and growth, Habib said.

Source: http://www.ventures-africa.com/2014/03/ethiopia-establishes-business-academy/

 

17 March 2014-Addis Ababa-Unilever (UNA), the world’s second-biggest consumer-products manufacturer, plans to open a manufacturing plant in Ethiopia during the next year, Bloomberg reported citing a company official.

The company is renting premises for a plant in the Eastern Industry Zone in Dukem, 31 Km southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, Dougie Brew, head of corporate affairs in Africa, said in a phone interview with Bloomberg on March 4.

“The plans are ambitious for Ethiopia because we see it as a growing market,” Brew said from London. “We’ve taken a long-term investment decision in Ethiopia because of the demography, broad-based growth and opportunity to create a genuinely inclusive and sustainable business model from scratch.”

The company plans to build a “comprehensive consumer-goods manufacturing business” in Ethiopia, which will source from Ethiopian suppliers, Brew said. “Retail is still a restricted sector so a lot of our work will be developing local Ethiopian companies that will act as distributors.”

Unilever, which already imports Knorr stock cubes and Omo detergent into Ethiopia, may initially produce cloth washing soap before moving into food products, he said.

Source: Bloomberg

Monday, March 17, 2014-ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia plans to build a new international airport on the outskirts of capital Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian Airports Enterprise (EAE) said Monday.”The enterprise has already identified three locations for the construction of the new airport,” EAE head of public relations Wondim Teklu told Anadolu Agency.

According Teklu, traffic through the city’s main airport, the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, is growing by 22 percent per year and a new airport is needed to accommodate the increases.

“Modjo and Dukem, respectively located 70km and 30km southeast of Addis Ababa, as well as Tefki, 39km west of the capital, are the suggested sites to build the airport,” he said.”Bidding will be arranged for consultancy to select the site and also for the design work,” he added. “Once the appropriate site is selected, the next step will be to look into the cost and financial sources for the construction of the airport,” Teklu noted.

Simultaneously, the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport – which currently processes 150 flights a day – will be expanded with the use of a $225-million loan from the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim). China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) will carry out the work, which will include the expansion of the main passengers’ terminal and construction of a modern VIP terminal, Teklu said.”The expansion work will be carried out in a way to efficiently utilize space and give improved service to passengers,” he said

The new terminal will be able to serve some 22 million passengers annually. The existing terminal can currently serve only 6.5 million passengers a year.

Teklu said that a previous airport upgrade ten years ago had increased the capacity of the airport apron to allow it to accommodate 45 large aircraft, up from a previous 19.

When the previous airport expansion project was undertaken at a total cost of 1.2 billion Ethiopian birr (roughly $62 million), it had been assumed that the airport would be able to absorb anticipated traffic increases until 2017.

Source:http://www.turkishpress.com/news/395572/

 

Over recent years there has been an increasing amount of interest in Africa as a continent with immense resources and potential. Ethiopia in particular has been singled out as a land of growth and investment opportunity.

Ethiopia grows some of the world’s finest cotton and has a rich textile spinning and weaving history, yet it’s importance on a global scale remains insignificant.

With several government incentives in place, a priority given towards developing the textile and clothing industry across the value chain, a viable business environment and duty free market access to both US and EU, Ethiopia is now beginning to attract international buyers and investors, as this report demonstrates.

Having experienced approximately 8% GDP growth consistently since 2008 and a stable political framework since 1995, it still remains largely un-touched, un-explored and un-tapped.

“We have 3 million hectares available to grow cotton but we are using only about 6 to 7 percent of this resource. You can imagine the potential that we have in this segment.” Seleshi Lemma, Director General Textile Industry Development Institute.

The report sets the scene on one of the oldest countries in the world, now the fourth largest and second fastest growing economy in Sub Saharan Africa.

It will show how the textile and garment sector in Ethiopia has set ambitious targets to expand rapidly by 2015.

The textile and clothing sector is considered as the key priority sector of the Government‘s Industrial Development Strategy as part of the Growth and Transformation Plan

With a vision to become a world – class institute by 2024, TIDI’s mission (The Textile Industry Development Institute of Ethiopia) is to enable the Ethiopian textile industry to compete globally by providing sustained investment promotion, consultancy, training, research, laboratory and marketing support and services.

One of Ethiopia’s strategic objectives is to increase product diversity and product categories across various parts of the value chain to build the backward integration and to open new market access opportunities.

Already we are seeing Several Ethiopian designers making it onto the regional and international fashion stage.

Expect to see “Made in Ethiopia” emerging more and more over the coming years.

Source:http://www.just-style.com/market-research/ethiopia-the-emerging-textile-and-clothing-industry_id196030.aspx?lk=ea

Monday, 24 February 2014 ,Addis Ababa:Global Trade Development Consulting and its Project Development Partner, Energy Ventures, both US companies, announced that they have been awarded the contract by the Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy and the Board of Directors of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation to build, operate, and transfer three 100-MW solar farms in Eastern Ethiopia.

Solar PV Electricity generating systems are emerging renewable energy technologies and can be developed as viable option for electricity generation in future. This project also improve the provision of power supply in terms of quantity and quality through the enhancement of generation capacity mix of the Ethiopian national grid system and reduction of system losses and provision of alternative electricity green energy solution. The Integrated energy policy of Ethiopia envisages electricity generation installed capacity of more than 20,000 MW by 2020 and substantial contribution would be from renewable energy, resource.

Ethiopia is in the initial set of countries in President Obama’s “Power Africa” initiative. In addition to the needed power generation capacity, this 300 Megawatt Solar Project will contribute to economic development resulting in the creation of more than 2,000 construction jobs that would inject additional revenue to the Ethiopian economy. Ongoing plant operations would yield several hundred new jobs as well.

According to the Honorable Minister Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of Water, irrigation and Energy for the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, “this project represents a significant advance in our Ethiopian energy initiative and is now part of our comprehensive Energy Plan. Given Ethiopia’s large hydro-electric generation capacity and now wind and geothermal power generation coming on-line, large scale solar fits nicely into our energy portfolio and will provide significant power generation capacity much faster than the other renewable technologies. We welcome this project with open arms.”

“We spent months analyzing the potential for a large-scale solar project in Ethiopia. We found that Ethiopia has some of the highest solar irradiance factors in Africa,” said Dr. Yonnas Kefle CEO of GTDC.  He added, “As with all our projects, we intend to maximize the amount of local resources in the performance of this project.”

Ms Tigist Mamo, COO of GTDC, emphasized that “the project performance which is so far accelerating in the right direction intends to engage local resources while working to ease the existing energy problem.” According to Ms. Tigist, Ethiopia needs the Solar PV Electricity generating systems to enhance its fast social and economic development.

“We are excited to be the Project Developer leading this important project for Ethiopia. The powers that this project will deliver have a dramatic effect on millions of Ethiopians’ quality of life,” said Lynn R. Hogg, Founder and CEO of Energy Ventures.

Source: http://213.55.98.22/enae/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1685:ethiopia-approves-3-new-solar-projects&Itemid=205

Brussels, 17 February 2014/ ACP: The ACP Eminent Persons Group (EPG) will hold its fourth round of consultations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 24 – 26 February, to gather views from stakeholders in the region on the outlooks for the 79-member African, Caribbean and Pacific Group.

As the largest intergovernmental grouping of developing countries in the world, the ACP is at a crossroads as it nears the end of its long-time partnership agreement with the European Community in 2020. The agreement provides the framework for ACP-EU political relations, economic cooperation and trade, as well as the disbursement of the European Development Fund (EDF), worth more than 32 billion Euro for 2014-2020.

Participants representing government, parliament, civil society, academia and private sector stakeholders from 15 East African member states have been invited to take part in discussions.

EPG Chair and former President of Nigeria Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is slated to open the event, with presentations from other high profile speakers.

EPG members from the region, including former Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organisation Ms. Valentine Rugwabiza, Former Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund Mr. Peter Gakunu, and Former Acting Special Representative for the UN Secretary General in Burundi Ambassador Nureldin Satti will also chair several sessions.

Key elements to be covered include the major achievements and shortfalls of the ACP Group in the past 39 years, its relations with the EU, its relations with other partners, its role in regional integration and regional/ global development agendas, financing issues, and next steps for the future. The aim is to gather views on the role of ACP in the region and the globe, and how it can position itself as a stronger organisation in the future.

The outcomes will feed into a final report by the Eminent Persons Group, to be submitted to the 8th Summit for ACP Heads of State and Government this December 2014.

Previous rounds of consultations were held successfully in Samoa (Pacific), Grenada (Caribbean), and Benin (West Africa). The next round of consultations will be hosted for the Southern African region in Angola, with only the Central African region remaining.

Source:http://www.acpsec.org/content/east-africa-talks-take-stock-acp-future

 

WASHINGTON, February 19, 2014 – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved funds to help Ethiopia upgrade the country’s road system, strengthen road maintenance and reduce travel time along inter-regional corridors.

The Road Sector Support Project is supported by a US$320 million IDA credit* as part of the $US385 million total project cost. The government of Ethiopia will contribute $US65 million. The project aligns with Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) and supports economic expansion by improving the quality of roads serving areas producing exportable agricultural products. By helping secure access to all-weather roads, the project will also help Ethiopia achieve its goal of halving the proportion of the population living below the poverty line.

“Ethiopia has experienced strong economic growth and has achieved substantial progress on social and human development over the past decade,” said Guang Zhe Chen, World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia. “Upgrading and maintaining the country’s road sector is an important part of our work in Ethiopia. Today’s project will help to enhance trade, create new markets, and provide improved access to education, medical services, and food security to the country’s poor.”

The Government of Ethiopia formulated the first phase of the Road Sector Development Program (RSDP) in 1997. Since then, the size of the road network has increased from 26,550 kilometers to 85,966 km, and the roads operating in good condition has risen from 20 percent to 70 percent. Today’s funds will build on these accomplishments and will be used to upgrade about 258 km of the Nekempte – Bure road, which provides an important link between the Oromia and Amhara regions. The upgraded road will help to reduce travel time and facilitate the marketing of wheat, vegetables and other agriculture crops.

The project also aims to enhance Ethiopia’s road asset management practices by supporting the maintenance of selected roads covering about 200 km; the Government will fund a further 200 km of road under a parallel financing. The funds will also be used to provide technical assistance to strengthen road asset management capacity, and prepare a road asset management strategy.

“Today’s project will benefit women and children by providing them with improved access, access to much needed education and medical facilities, including pre and post-natal care,”said Tesfamichael Nahusenay Mitiku, World Bank Task Team Leader. “Improved road conditions will also reduce the time that women spend transporting products to market, and will bring new opportunities for employment within small-scale, road-side commercial operations.”

At the center of the new operation is the adoption of an Output and Performance Based Road Contracting (OPRC). The road asset management system is expected to reduce the whole-life cost of road infrastructure, provide increased budget certainty for investment and recurrent expenditures, and improve the quality and sustainability of the network for road users.

Source:http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2014/02/19/wb-road-improvements-maintenance-ethiopia