An Ethiopian New Year’s celebration together with the Diaspora

An Ethiopian New Year’s celebration together with the Diaspora in Belgium was held on Saturday, September 14/2019 at the Embassy premises.

Around 180 people were present with families and their children. Opening remarks, presentation of investment and business opportunities in Ethiopia for the Diaspora were made by Amb. Grum Abay and Ato Gebremichael Gebretsadik, Deputy Head of Mission.

As there had been significant changes in the staff of the Embassy recently, the occasion also offered the opportunity to introduce newly posted members of the Embassy to the community. Briefings on current situation in Ethiopia, the region and especially with regard to the Hidase dam were given by the Ambassador, which resulted in a lively debate and question and answer period. Calls to re-start bond purchases and contributions to the trust fund were received positively by the Diaspora members present at the event. The celebrations included a cake cutting ceremony with some members of the Diaspora, cultural shows and dances, food and coffee were also offered to those present.

Comments were made to hold similar events periodically in the coming months, the readiness of members of the Diaspora to actively support the Embassy’s activities in disseminating information about developments in and around Ethiopia to the Belgian media and public at large, organize together with the Embassy cultural and business fora in various cities in Belgium, organize various groups of Ethiopians in Belgian towns to become active Ethiopian diaspora entities which will later on coalesce into a one single strong diaspora organization based upon the will of its members and adherents. The event was much appreciated by the participants.

IGAD welcomes positive progress in South Sudan

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) welcomed the positive progress in the implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan.

The face – to – face meeting between President Salva Kiir and the First Vice President-Designate, Dr. Riek Machar that resulted in a way forward on pending Security Arrangements issues, is a significant step in the right direction, said IGAD in a statement.

Machar made a rare visit to Juba this week to meet Kiir. The meetings between the two leaders were aimed at ironing out outstanding issues.

“The remaining critical tasks of the agreement can only be completed with unity and compromise. The mood in Juba is very encouraging. It is feasible to form a unity government in November 2019,” said Ambassador Ismail Wais, the Special Envoy of IGAD for South Sudan.

“We call on the non-signatory groups to come in from the cold and join the nation-building and solutions,” he added.

IGAD reiterated its commitment and support of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS).

It also called on the international community and the friends of South Sudan to support the positive momentum and expedite their support for the completion of the remaining critical tasks.

IGAD further commended President Salva Kiir for his leadership to broker a peace deal between the rebels and the government in Sudan.

Ethiopia Largest Recipient of FDI in Eastern Africa

The EY Attractiveness Survey 2019 released this week shows Ethiopia attracted foreign investment worth Shs26.8 trillion last year.

Kenya closely followed Shs7.68 trillion while Tanzania attracted foreign investments of Shs3.8 trillion in the same period.

The report did not document foreign direct investment figures for Rwanda and Uganda.

However , data from Bank of Uganda indicates that Uganda, in 2018, received about Shs2.9 trillion in foreign direct investment.

In Ethiopia, according to the EY report the Shs26.8 trillion foreign direct investment resulted into creations of 16,000 jobs from 29 projects while about 6,000 jobs were created in Kenya from 64 unnamed projects.

In Tanzania 3,000 jobs were created from 19 projects.

Experts said yesterday Ethiopia is attracting higher foreign inflows compared to its regional peers thanks to an “efficient” business environment and the lure of a huge untapped domestic market.

“Ethiopia has affordable electricity supply and is served by an efficient airline,” said Mr Francis Kamau, a tax partner at audit and consultancy EY East Africa.

“It also has a huge domestic market with guaranteed access to external markets through its well served Special Economic Zones.”

Kenya’s FDI attraction is helped by its status as the region’s financial centre, and a hub for many multinationals doing business in the region.

Two of Kenya’s largest blue chip companies, KCB Group and Safaricom, have continued to eye establishment of operations in neighboring Ethiopia where reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is opening up the economy, creating opportunity for foreign investors.

President calls for more efforts of stakeholders to ensure access to justice

The President made the remark at the celebration of the Justice Day held at the Millennium Hall yesterday.

Present at the celebration were senior government officials and stakeholders, including Meaza Ashenafi, President of the Federal Supreme Court.

President Sahle-Work said ensuring access to justice has an irreplaceable role to accelerate development and democracy as well as to build public trust in judicial institutions.

She said lack of public trust in judicial institutions will be a threat for the country by eroding the unity of the people.

The six-day campaign launched on September 6 under the theme “celebrating Pagumen with synergy,” to strengthen unison among Ethiopians will come to an end today with celebration of National Unity Day.

Pagumen is the 13th month of Ethiopian calendar. The Ethiopian calendar has 12 months of 30 days plus 5 or 6 days. The 6th day is added every 4 years. This year, it has six days.

Each day is being celebrated under six pillars of prosperity, peace, national pride, democracy, justice and national unity.

The country marked days of prosperity, peace, national pride, democracy and justice during the past five days. The last day of Pagumen is dedicated to justice.

Ethiopia’s New Year (2012) will begin tomorrow.

Premier receives award from Association of Political Consultants Africa

Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed has received an award from the Association of Political Consultants Africa – APCAfrica, in recognition to his contribution to democracy in Ethiopia.

Since coming to power, the Prime Minister contributed a lot for democracy, undertaken reforms, released several prisoners and political parties in exile returned to their country, said Kehinde Bamigbetan, President of the Association.

Bamigbetan made the remark at the fourth Africa Political Summit in Addis Ababa opened today under the theme “Campaign Financing and Elections in Africa.”

Regarding the three-day summit, Bamigbetan said the summit aims to promote and foster democratic process, principles and practices.

It also helps to establish and maintain relations between APCA members and political as well as public institutions to promote understanding and cooperation in matters pertaining to political activities and public affairs, he added.

During the morning session, European Association of Political Consultants (EAPC) President, Igor Mintusov, shared the experiences and philosophy of fundraising strategies for election and election campaigns to the attendees.

Mintusov stressed the necessity of technology and impacts of small amounts of money collected from potential voters to run political campaigns effectively.

He advised political candidates not to ignore small amount of fund collected from the masses to run election campaigns.

EAPC will support and work together with APCA in sharing experiences of political consultancy, the president stated.

EAPC Board Member, Reza Kazemi said defining target groups is very crucial for fundraising and election campaign, even if election and fundraising campaign differs from one country to another with regional and local variations.

Hard core supporters, voters who support a political goal, and people who funded campaigns before are the potential fund raisers of election campaign for the given political candidate, he added.

Source: FBC

A discussion forum on homegrown economic reforms opens today in Addis Ababa

A discussion forum on homegrown economic reforms opened at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) meeting hall this morning.

Development partners and the diplomatic community are in attendance of the forum opened by Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed.

In his opening remark, the Prime Minister recapped the key milestones achieved in shifting the economic landscape.

He added that the reform is aimed at transforming Ethiopia into the icon of Africa by 2030.

Towards this aim, the Prime Minister called upon development partners to continue strengthening their support, according to office of the Prime Minister.

State Minister of Finance, Eyob Tekalign said the homegrown economic reform will enhance job creation, inclusive growth poverty reduction and create a pathway for prosperity for all.

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Dr. Vera Songwe for her part called upon the Ethiopian Government to increase investment by 6 billion US dollars.

The Next World Economic Forum to be Held in Addis Ababa

The 28th World Economic Forum which has been held from 4th-6th September 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa is concluded.

H.E. President Sahle Work Zewde stated on the closing session of the forum that the next is to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in September next year.

The 28th World Economic Forum held in Cape Town was fruitful in discussing pressing issues of Africa and beyond, President Sahle Work stated. “Let’s make a continent free from gender based violence, xenophobia, exclusion and all evils that hamper our continent; there is no place for such actions on Africa we want,” she added.