Ethiopian Embassy in Brussels takes part in a Tourism Fair in Mechelen, Belgium

This 22 September 2019, the Embassy of Ethiopia in Brussels took part in the “Travel Africa” tourism fair which was held in Mechelen, a town located 31 km from Brussels.
Organized by Joker Travel Agency, the event attracted over 1000 potential tourists.
This Belgian tour operator, recently included Ethiopia under its tour package for the first time, used to focus only on the southern parts of Africa.
During the event, a separate session was dedicated for Ethiopia to present its tourist attraction sites to the visitors besides to an Info-booth which was providing information and explanations about Ethiopia’s historical, cultural and natural tourist attractions.
As part of the event, a traditional Ethiopian cultural coffee ceremony which caught the attention of many visitors, was also hosted.

Forum discusses privatization and share market in Ethiopia

A discussion forum on privatization and share market in Ethiopia opened today, organized by HST Consulting Plc.

The objective of the meeting is to provide a recommendation to the government on what kind of privatization and stock market should Ethiopia pursue.

In his opening remake, Teshome Tafese, State Minister of Finance, said such kind of discussions would help Ethiopia to get more experiences in how to involve in privatization and share market.

Strengths and weaknesses observed in the privatization practiced during the past years were discussed during the event.

Ethiopia privatized 381 state-owned enterprises in two phases during the past 27 years, generating 49 billion birr for the government.

However, due to lack of proper monitoring mechanisms, most of the privatized enterprises failed to achieve their target.

The participants recommend the government to take lesson from this failure and avoid considering privatization as the only option

They advised the government to avoid privatizing enterprises that generate good income, citing the Chinese ZTE Corporation and Huawei Technologies, as examples.

They also recommended the government to develop clear privatization roadmap and policy.

Great Ethiopian Run has won the “Best International Race” award

Great Ethiopian Run has won the “Best International Race” award.

The Great Ethiopian Run is an annual 10-kilometre road running event held in Addis Ababa every year since 2001.

The last event was staged on 18th November 2018 with 44,000 participants, which makes it the biggest 10km road race in Africa.

The 19th edition of TOTAL Great Ethiopian Run 10km will be on 17 November 2019.

Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister receives Norwegian delegation

The two sides held broad discussion on bilateral, regional, and global issues, Gedu said efforts are being made to further strengthen the longstanding ties between the two countries, and their cooperation in climate change and other related issues.

He thanked the Norwegian Government for the support it has been offering to Ethiopia’s socio-economic sectors.

The Foreign Minister briefed members of the Committee on the ongoing reforms in Ethiopia and the country’s efforts to maintain peace and promote regional integration.

He also called on Norway to provide support to the reform initiative.

Anniken Huitfeldt, Chair of the Standing Committee, commended Ethiopia’s ongoing reform initiatives, and its efforts to promote gender equality. She also hailed the country’s tree plantation campaign.

She further said the peace deal reached Ethiopia and Eritrea would contribute a lot for the stability of the region.

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.