A cornerstone laying ceremony was held on 16 January in Ethiopia’s eastern city, Dire Dawa, for a textile plant that will be built with an investment of 220 million U.S. dollars. Dire Dawa mayor’s office said Chinese firm Wuxi No. 1 Cotton Mill will build the textile plant which will lie on 40 hectares of land. The construction of the textile plant will take 30 months and is expected to employ 3,000 Ethiopians once commissioned.

The plant will be located inside Dire Dawa Industrial Park (DDIP) that is currently being constructed by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC). DDIP, currently being built at a cost of 159 million U.S. dollars on 159 hectares of land, is expected to attract industries specialized in textile, apparel, and agro-processing.

The Ethiopian government is financing the construction of the industrial park which is expected to be commissioned later this year. The textile plant’s cornerstone laying ceremony was held in the presence of Liu Yu, economic and commercial counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Ethiopia and Ibrahim Usman, mayor of Dire Dawa city administration.

Ethiopia has earned $ 143.88 million from the export of oilseeds during the first 5 months of the current fiscal year – exceeding the plan by 11.2 percent. The development was disclosed by the country’s Ministry of Trade. During the period, Ethiopia exported more than 128 thousand tons of oilseeds, which is 27.92 percent higher than what the country exported same period last fiscal year. The revenue, on the other hand, is 31.72 percent higher than what the subsector made in the first 5 months of last fiscal year.

 

Commenting on the achievements, Shimelis Arega, Senior Public Relations Expert at the Ministry, said the increase in global sesame price and strong monitoring and support mechanism from the ministry enhanced the performance of the subsector.

The performance has enabled Ethiopia to secure a little more than 70 percent of the annual target it has set when it comes to volume of export. Nevertheless, the revenue generated is only 58.12 percent of the yearly plan.

In the entire past fiscal year, Ethiopia made 345.29 million USD from the export of 323,755 tons of oilseeds.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Ethiopia has planned ambitious programs of forest landscape restoration to resuscitate more than 20 million hectares of degraded forest landscapes within the next 20 years, The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change disclosed.

In an exclusive interview with The Ethiopian Herald, Dr Yitebitu Moges, Manager for REDD+ program under the Ministry, said that the forest coverage of the country will leap to 20 percent by 2030 from its three percent status it was in two decades ago.

A plan is set to develop seven million hectares of forestland by the end of the strategic year, as there is a conducive environment to achieve the target.

Dr Yitebitu Moges also said that the nation suffers the dwindling of about 92 thousand hectares of forest covered land every year. To curb this problem, the Ministry has to engage itself aggressively in the development of forest lands, integrating things with the green development strategy.

 

According to a World Bank report, the Ethiopian economy will maintain its growth lead for the East African region. The economy, however, dropped a step in growth forecast in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region, falling behind Ghana. In June 2017, the WB forecast Ethiopia as the most expansive in SSA pegging growth at 8.3%. The latest forecast puts Ethiopia at a percentage point behind Ghana. The West African nation is forecast to grow at 8.3% as against Ethiopia’s 8.2%.

Among East African countries, Ethiopia is likely to remain the fastest growing economy, but growth is expected to soften as it takes measures to stabilize government debt. Other 2018 forecasts for the East African region’s economic giants are Kenya (5.5%), Tanzania (6.8%), Uganda (5.1%) and Rwanda (5.9%). Ethiopia beat Kenya last year to become economic giant of the region according to the IMF.

The WB’s Global Economic Prospects report released on January 10, 2018, said there was a modest recovery underway in Sub-Saharan Africa buoyed by an improvement in commodity prices.

Under the area of outlook, the report said regional growth was projected at 3.2% for this year up to an average of 3.6% in 2019 – 2020. It hinted at a solid performance for non-resource-intensive countries hinging it to public investment growth. “Non-resource-intensive countries are projected to expand at a solid pace, helped by robust public investment growth. Economic activity is expected to remain solid in WAEMU, with Ivory Coast and Senegal expanding at a rapid pace,” the report added.

http://www.africanews.com/2018/01/11/ethiopia-to-remain-east-africa-s-fastest-growing-economy-world-bank-forecast/

According to the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ethiopia earned more than $1.8 billion from tourism in the first half of this Ethiopian fiscal year, which ended on last Monday, January 8, 2018.

A total of 485,806 foreign tourists have visited the country during the past six months. The country’s rugged mountains (some 25 are over 4000 meters high) broad savannah, lakes and rivers, the unique Rift Valley and volcanic lakes, birdlife and the Blue Nile falls are some of the natural attractions in Ethiopia.

The medieval city of Gondar, with more castles, palaces and churches; the ancient capital of the Queen of Sheba and Ethiopia’s holiest city, Axum, where the original Ark of the Covenant containing the Ten Commandments was seen, are the other tourist attractions in Ethiopia.

The Minister said the revenue secured in this half year surpassed by 10.8 percent, compared to the same period last year.

She attributed the successes to the collaborative efforts between her ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as other stakeholders in promoting the tourist attraction sites of the country.

Ethiopia targets to earn $4.5 billion from tourism this fiscal year.

http://apanews.net/index.php/en/news/ethiopia-earns-18b-from-tourism-in-half-year/

Invitation to attend the cultural show and  ceremony to be held on 13 January 2018 in Luxembourg.

Ethiopia is working to improve the provision of education to refugees sheltering in camps in the country through the Administration for Refugee and Returnees Affairs (ARRA). Through the activities carried out so far,  gross enrolment rate in primary education for refugees has reached 70.5 percent in 2017, according to ARRA. Currently, some 177,745 refugees are enrolled in primary, secondary, pre-school, and alternative education in refugee camps in various parts of the country. Ethiopia hosts more than 850,000 refugees mainly from Eritrea, Somalia and South Sudan in 27 camps.

The primary education enrolment rate has increased by 8.5 percent compared to the previous year.  Through the campaign conducted under the motto of “No school-age child shall be out of school”, the institution has managed to ensure some 20,573 new enrolments in 2017. Construction of schools and deployment of qualified teachers are also among the activities that ARRA is engaged.

Education in Emergency Team Leader at Save the Children, Abera Mekonen told ENA that efforts are being exerted to improve refugees’ access to education in collaboration with the government and other stakeholders. The support covers childhood care, early childhood education, primary education and alternative basic education. “Education is very important even in an emergency, it is a sign of stability, and school is a centre of safety and protection.”

In addition to enabling refugees to attend primary education; ARRA has also been working on secondary and tertiary school programs for refugees by providing scholarships.

The government has provided scholarships for refugees, mainly Eritreans, since 2010; however, the program was opened for refugees from South Sudan and Somalia since in 2012. Some 2,386 refugees have so far joined public universities through government scholarship program. In 2017 alone, some 514 refugees have joined public universities through the program.

Ethiopia is home to the world’s 5th largest refugee population, hosting more than 850,000 refugees.

The Ethiopian government said on 3 January that it has generated more than 334 million U.S. dollars from the export of coffee to the global market during the past five months.

The announcement by the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Development and Marketing Authority on Wednesday said that the east African country has secured the reported amount of revenue from the export of 92,136 tons of coffee to the global market.

Ethiopia is one of Africa’s largest producers of Arabica coffee, in which coffee production is dubbed as the backbone of the country’s agriculture-led economy.

The east African country had generated a record 866 million U.S. dollars from the export of coffee last Ethiopian fiscal year from the export of 221,000 tons of coffee to 56 countries worldwide.

Ethiopia’s coffee export earnings for the 2016/2017 fiscal year saw a 92 percent achievement of the initial target, which was set by the state-owned Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Development and Marketing Authority.

Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Belgium, Sudan and South Korea were among the top importers of the Ethiopian coffee, accounting for close to 86 percent of the total coffee exported from Ethiopia last fiscal year.