Ethiopia broke a world record by planting more than 353 million trees in 12 hours on Monday 20 July. The burst of tree planting was part of a wider reforestation campaign named “Green Legacy,” spearheaded by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Millions of Ethiopians across the country were invited to take part in the challenge and within the first six hours, Ahmed tweeted that around 150 million trees had been planted.”We’re halfway to our goal,” he said and encouraged Ethiopians to “build on the momentum in the remaining hours.”

After the 12-hour period ended, the Prime Minister took to Twitter again to announce that Ethiopia not only met its “collective #GreenLegacy goal,” but exceeded it. A total of 353,633,660 tree seedlings had been planted, according to the country’s minister for innovation and technology, Getahun Mekuria.

Monday’s challenge had encouraged citizens in Africa’s second-most populous nation to plant 200 million trees in one day. In 2017, India set the world record when around 1.5 million volunteers planted 66 million in 12 hours. Ethiopia’s goal for the whole season is even bigger than that; the national tree planting campaign aims to plant 4 billion trees during “the rainy season” — between May and October.

According to Farm Africa, an organization working on reforestation efforts in East Africa and helping farmers out of poverty, less than 4% of Ethiopia’s land is forested, compared to around 30% at the end of the 19th century. The country is also suffering from the effects of the climate crisis, with land degradation, soil erosion, deforestation, and recurrent droughts and flooding.

In 2017, Ethiopia joined more than 20 other African nations in pledging to restore 100 million hectares of land as part of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative. A recent study estimated that restoring the world’s lost forests could remove two-thirds of all the planet-warming carbon that is in the atmosphere because of human activity.

The Ministry of Agriculture disclosed on July 24 that the country has already planted 2.6 billion trees slated to meet the 4 billion trees planting national project.

The national 4 billion trees planting project officially launched by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on May 26, 2019, is set to mobilize national reforestation program of planting 40 tree seedlings per head.

Furthermore, he announced the planting of 200 million saplings on a single day on 29 July 2019, expecting to break the world record held by India.

In line with this, Agriculture Minister, Umar Hussen said that the distribution of seedlings for planting will be completed on Friday.

Nationwide monitoring of planted seedlings will be conducted to ensure that the planted trees would be grown, he said.

This will continue even in the future to identify which seedlings have grown and where and which ones have died out or have been nourished by those who planted them, he added.

The national initiative is critical for Ethiopia, as the country has lost billions of trees and forest resources over the years.

Most of the seedlings planted are from indigenous tree species.

State-owned Ethio Telecom, a potential candidate for privatisation, generated 36.3 billion Ethiopian birr ($1.26 billion) in revenue during the last financial year, a company report said on July 23, a 7% rise on the previous year.

The total number of subscribers of the only telecom operator in the country has managed to increase the total number of subscribers to 43.63 million, which was 37.92 million the previous year, according to Firehiwot Tamiru, CEO of Ethio Telecom

Multinational firms are eyeing a slice of the telecom provider after Ethiopia’s parliament passed a law last month to liberalise the telecommunications sector.

France’s Orange, MTN of South Africa, Britain’s Vodafone Group, the UAE’s Etisalat and Zain of Kuwait are among the companies that have expressed an interest in the firm.

France’s Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire arrived in Addis Ababa on Monday for a working visit to foster and diversify economic ties between the two countries.

In March 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron paid a visit to Ethiopia and signed several cooperation accords, including air cooperation and joint operations, and opportunities for training and equipment purchases.

Ethiopia and France also signed a military cooperation accord, a deal which includes helping Ethiopia build a navy.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received Mr Le Maire at his office, where they discussed the ongoing strengthening of the economic cooperation between Ethiopia and France.

Mr Le Maire conveyed France’s appreciation of steps being taken by Ethiopia, particularly to increase competitiveness and business conduciveness. The French Minister further confirmed Ethiopia as an investment destination for France.

The same day, the French delegation visited the headquarters of Ethiopian airlines, where they met with CEO Tewolde GebreMariam and the Executive Management team to discuss the areas of partnerships and cooperation between the airline and French companies.

Commenting on the areas of the discussion, H.E. Bruno Le Maire said: “The recent launch of a flight to Marseille by Ethiopian Airlines is indicative of the growing partnership between Ethiopia and France. There is a huge potential for further partnership in aviation-related areas.”

Ethiopia and France have agreed to advance their cooperation in energy, logistics and telecommunications sectors. Some 40 million Euros support will also be provided soon for Ethiopia’s digital ID project.

French Economic and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said: “President Macron last March decided with PM Abiy Ahmed to reinforce the economic relationship between our two countries, and I really want this enforcement to be as concrete and as successful as possible.”

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, arrived in Asmara on July 18 for a two-day working visit.

Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki gave a warm welcome to the Prime Minister and his delegation on their arrival at Asmara’s International Airport.

The objective of the visit is to further enhancement of the all-rounded cooperation between the two countries as well as regional and other matters of mutual interest.

Prime Minister Abiy and President Isaias Afwerki held talks at State House on the same day.

The discussion focused on further deepening the ongoing vibrant peace process and all-rounded cooperation between the two countries on the basis of the five-point Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship signed on 9 July 2018.

The two leaders further agreed to broaden the positive ramifications of the peace process and robust cooperation underway to the Horn.

Accompanied by President Isaias, Prime Minister Dr Abiy and his entourage visited several development projects and construction work on the Nefasit-Decamhare highway.

Ethiopia has agreed to liberalize 90 percent of its tariff for members the of African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.

Hirut Zemene, Ethiopian State Minister of Foreign Affairs, said Ethiopia, within the coming 15 years, will scale back 90 percent of tariffs for members of AfCFTA. The State Minister further noted Ethiopia made the decision after negotiations that lasted two years.

Ms Hirut added that existing conditions are well considered in the tariff liberalization, and Ethiopia’s national economic advantage remains maintained.

Woinshet Tadesse (Ambassador), Ethiopia’s Permanent Representative to the African Union, remarked that being part of AfCFTA will help Ethiopia develop industries that could create more jobs for the unemployed while stabilizing the market for consumers. She also noted that the move helps create strong industries in Africa, which might even the continent’s competitive edge in the international market. AfCFTA will create economic integration and social solidarity among member states, she pointed out.

The tariff liberalization for AfCFTA member states will commence from July 1, 2020, onwards, it was learned, and it will be based on law and regulation.

Dear Members of the diaspora,

Great Greetings!

It has been recalled that we recently announced that the Ethiopian Diaspora Agency would hold its first Conference in Addis Ababa. The specific time and venue for the Ethiopian Diaspora Conference are from August 27-29/2019 at the Sheraton Hotel.

Therefore. the Ethiopian Embassy in Brussels would like to inform that all members of the diaspora are invited to participate in this remarkable event.

Best Regards,
Ethiopian Embassy Brussels
Diaspora Affairs.

The construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has jumped over 67 percent, according to the Office of the National Council for the Coordination of Public Participation.

Briefing the media on July 3, Deputy General Manager of the Construction of GERD, Ephrem Woldekidan said the construction of the dam is being carried out effectively since the obstacles were effectively removed.  

The construction of the main dam has reached 80 percent and of flood outlets 96 percent, he added.

According to Ephrem, the total average of the construction is now 67.9 percent.

He  said the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will start the first phase generation of power in 2021 and the project will be finalized at the end of 2023.

Dr. Daniel Bekele has been appointed as Commissioner of the Ethiopia Human Rights Commission (EHRC), replacing Dr. Addisu Gebregziabher.

In its regular session held on July 2, the House of People’s Representatives (HPR) picked Dr. Daniel to lead the Commission from 88 shortlisted candidates.

Prior to his current appointment, Dr Daniel Bekele was the senior director for Africa Advocacy at Human Rights Watch (HRW) where he has previously served as the Executive Director of the Africa Division.

He has also served as the legal department director and secretary of the board for United Insurance Co., and he managed Action Aid Ethiopia’s policy research and advocacy departments.

Dr Daniel has extensively consulted with non-governmental organizations including Oxfam, ARTICLE 19, Freedom House, and PACT, as well as with USAID and the World Bank.

He has worked in varying capacities with numerous civil society organizations, and led the national-level campaign for the Global Call to Action against Poverty.

The Ethiopian government is expecting a 9.2% economic growth for the 2019-20 fiscal year that begins this month and ends in June next year, compared to 7.7% the previous year, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced on July 1.

“The economy will grow by 9.2% for the coming financial year,” he said while addressing parliament. In a report published in March, rating agency Moody’s observed that growth in the country should be around 8% in the coming years thanks to huge infrastructure investments.

Moody’s said infrastructure investments were essential economy boosters in Ethiopia between 2009 and 2018 when the country’s gross domestic product rose 10% a year between the two periods.

The economy grew at 7.7 % in 2010 (2017/18) as well as at 8.6% both in 2008 (2015/16) and in 2009 (2016/17). 5 billion birr has been collected in revenue in the last 11 months, a 10% increase compared to the previous year.

More than 11 million people are currently jobless, and the figure increases by two million each year. Last year the government created jobs for about 1.4 million people, he said.

Foreign direct investment (FDI), loans and remittance increased by 20% compared to the same period last fiscal year, while the mounts deposited by all banks increasing by 22%. Loans distributed by the banks increased by 35%, he added.

Since Abiy Ahmed was appointed Prime Minister in April last year, he has succeeded in ending feud with neighboring Eritrea and easing political and social tensions.