Ethiopia expects to open its standard gauge railway line linking the capital Addis Ababa with the Red Sea state of Djibouti in October 2016.
This project is at the heart of plans to create new manufacturing firms in Ethiopia and to boost trade. The track covers 800 kilometres, and was built by the China Railway Corporation at a cost of $ 3.5 B. Girum Chala takes a ride on the soon-to-be-operating train.
Source: CCTV
On 7 September 2016, EU-focused website Euractiv published a baseless article suggesting the European Commission was considering to reduce its financial support to Ethiopia channeled through the EU Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) (“No Emergency Trust Fund money goes to Ethiopian government, Commission stresses”, 7 September 2016, euractiv.com).
The news article wrongly implies that the European Commission wants to avoid cooperating directly with the Ethiopian Government after the recent protests in the country, and provide development funding to non-governmental structures only. Furthermore, after reading this article, some readers could have the impression that the European Commission is withdrawing its financial development support and coming back on its commitment to work with the Ethiopian government.
To rectify these unsubstantiated claims, here are four facts that need to be taken into consideration:
Contact: info@ethiopianembassy.be / +32 2 771 32 94
With the new national tourism brand: “Ethiopia: Land of Origins,” and a sector marked with vast, and untapped potential, Ethiopia’s tourism industry is set to experience a huge metamorphosis as it builds its infrastructure, brand, and product offer in the coming years through both public and private efforts.
About 104 new tour operators have joined the country’s tourism industry in the concluded Ethiopian fiscal year, which is hoped to be a significant value addition to the sector.
During the same period, Ethiopia’s tourism sector generated 3.4 billion US dollars.
Tewolde Mulugeta, a Spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday (September 14, 2016) related that the new 104 tour operators helped the country to attract more tourists and further court foreign direct investment (FDI).
Board Chairperson of the Ethiopian Tourism Organization and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde Gebremariam, on his part said the economic diplomacy made in the past has paid off, adding that this had its own significant share in the growth of the tourism sector.
He further said the number of giant foreign companies and investors who visited Ethiopia last year surpassed from the target, of which he added, about 16 investors have already acquired licenses to invest in the country.
Out of the 1,021 small and medium size foreign companies and investors that explored investment opportunities in the country, over a quarter of them have secured license to engage in various investment sectors, he added.
Source: MFA Ethiopia
The newly appointed Ambassador of Finland, Ambassador Ulla Helena Airaksinen, who handed over today her copes of credentials to the State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Taye Atske-Selassie, noted that Ethio-Finish relations have embodied “successful cooperation” over the last decade.
Ambassador Taye on his part noted that the two countries exemplify “strong” relationship on many fronts, adding that the support given by Finland to Ethiopia’s developmental and humanitarian endeavors was “significant”. Ambassador Taye also underlined that both countries should work in concert to elevate their ties into a new high.
Ambassador Ulla Helena Airaksinen stressed the need to maintain the existing sound relations expanding the scope and depth into the horizons of other fields of development cooperation. She added that her country considers Ethiopia as one of its key partners in the realm of development and global issues of common interest.
Ambassador Ulla Helena Airaksinen who emphasized the importance of utilizing cooperation in education as a platform to consolidate the overall ties of the two countries further underscored the need to make new headway in the fields of trade and business.
Source: MFA Ethiopia
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said Ethiopia targets to have further 14 world heritages inscribed on UNESCO list during the second Growth and Transformation Plan period.
Alongside the global recognition, the plan aims at preserving and handing over the nation’s ancient values and heritages to posterity, Ministry Public and International Relations Director Gezahegn Abate said.
Over 50,000 heritages have been registered at national level while ten of them are registered under UNESCO, he further underlined.
Ethiopian Timket (Epiphany), Shadey/Ashenda and the Oromo Geda system are among the intangible heritages to be registered during the reported period.
Registering heritages at national and international levels is crucial to protect them from illegal actions, according to Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritages Public and International Relations Director Fanta Beyene.
The Director further stated registering heritages and keeping them in museums would enable to use them for research.
Focus will be given to gathering, protecting and preserving tangible and intangible heritages alongside ensuring economic benefits of the community and the country as a whole.
Expanding hotels and lodges around national parks, availing internet services and road networks are among activities being undertaking by the government to extend tourists’ stay around the destinations.
The Meskel festival, the finding of the True Cross and Fiche Chamballala are Ethiopia’s heritages inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list.
Ethiopia is the leading country in Africa for registering over ten tangible and intangible heritages by UNESCO and many more heritages are on the pipeline to join the prestigious list.
Heritages should be registered at the national level before their formal submission at UNESCO.
According to the Ministry, over 910,000 tourists visited the country last fiscal year which generated some 3.4 billion USD as the nation’s image improves.
Despite budgetary limitation, the Ministry in collaboration with the local community and UNESCO is also undertaking maintenance activities on ancient heritages.
Source: The Ethiopian Herald
Read further: Ethiopia plans to be one of world’s top tourism destinations
The Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity said that the Repi waste-to-energy project is 87 percent complete.
The UK-based Cambridge Industries and China National Electric Engineering Corporation are undertaking the over 95 million USD project. The plant, which lies on 53,123 hectares of land is designed to generate 50MW.
According to Project Deputy Head Nicholas Halias, the overall construction work including installation of machinery is being finalized.
The installation of two turbine generators and power control units has been finalized.
The project is believed to assist efforts of limiting carbon emission as it holds back methane gas amounting to 46,494 tons of CO2, Nicholas said.
The deputy head said : “There is a double advantage as the power generated is carbon clean.”
The project will clean the capital from dirt and address interruptions in power supply.
“The project will be finalized within the schedule unless we face unforeseen challenges going beyond our capability,” Ministry Public Relations and Communication Director Bizuneh Tolcha said.
The Repi project will be Africa’s first waste-to-energy project.
Source: The Ethiopian Herald
Lately, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has held discussion with diplomatic communities in Ethiopia on the recent clashes in Gondar and some parts of Oromia. According to the Ministry, the facts on the ground have ignited discontent and they are taken over by the subjective views and agendas of a group of people living inside and outside of the country.
According to the Ministry, some extremist groups from inside and outside have tried to divert and utilize the genuine questions of the public to their own advantages via social media. State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Taye Atske-Selassie said that the presence of unemployed youth in rural and urban areas have created opportunity for destructive elements to utilize the situation and the unemployed youth for their own agendas. This situation has resulted in public demonstrations which did not have recognition in some towns of Oromia and Amhara states.
“As it was evidenced in the recent demonstrations, some destructive elements have done all they could to frame the already existing legitimate concerns of the people regarding good governance and the question of self-administration along the line of very much insular thoughts. Though objective reasons [which let the people to raise their concerns] were legitimate, they were taken over by destructive political elements,” according to the State Minister. In this regard, the need for good governance, demand for improved facilities, fair distribution of resources and unemployment were some of the objective reasons behind the protests.
According to him, this objective reasons have awakened the government to evaluate itself and to take measures instantly. Unemployment, particularly, the problem of filling the gaps between expectations of the youth and the capability to deliver what they expect is one of the reasons behind the discontent.
According to the State Minister, growth and development come up with their own challenges. The presence of a demanding society is one of the manifestation of development. In this regard, the emergence of a demanding society that expects more and more from the growing economy has exacerbated the situation. What is more, the problem associated with lack of job opportunities for graduate students have also added another challenge.
Lack of good governance and the failure to address the concerns of the public within a short period of time have also further exacerbated the discontent. The government’s response to public’s concern was also very sluggish.
As a means to address the concerns of the people, the government is discussing with different sections of the society. According to Ambassador Taye, in the process of settling unrest, a clash occurred between the law enforcing bodies and the demonstrators. In due course, people have lost their lives including passersby who were not part of the demonstration.
The issue of unemployment is one of the objective causes for the public’s discontent. Similar to other African countries, youth unemployment is one of the major challenges for Ethiopia. According to him, in response to youth unemployment, the government is doing its level best to create job opportunities. The expansion of industries and other projects is expected to address the problem. In this regard, massive job creation is one of the priority areas of GTP II.
Regarding land administration, the State Minister told the diplomatic community that the problem would be resolved based on constitutional arrangement.
Regarding involvement of independent bodies to investigate the issues, the State Minister said that using the Constitution as well as international human right standards investigation would be conducted by an independent organ. However, as to the Ministry, the government does not need any external intervention on internal affairs. In doing so, the government will facilitate the ground for stakeholders and legal measures will be taken on those who violate human rights during the demonstration. He also mentioned that the Ethiopia Human Right Council is making moves to identify the amount of injury during the demonstration.
Responding to the ambassador’s reflection on why the government ban Internet during the demonstration, Ambassador Taye said, that was “a hard choice” made as an immediate solution to protect youth from communicating with those extremist groups.
The ambassador also stressed that the government is engaged in various discussions with community leaders, youth associations, and public figures to listen to the public and resolve the issue the issue once forever.
He added that the violence had become issue of concern for the government as the nation is in a transformation stage. And this progress of development should not be interrupted and that is why the government is set to use democratic solutions to stabilize the country, according to the ambassador.
Following the recent clashes in different parts of the country the government has accepted most of the issues of concerns that broke out in different parts of the country as consequences of bad governance, unemployment and the likes.
Like most African countries, the issue of bad governance and unemployment have become serious issues of concern in Ethiopia. And it is the failure to respond quickly to the public’s demand that has caused the recent clashes in some parts of the country. It has become the cause for loss of human life and property. In a country like Ethiopia where its rapid economic growth has impressed the world, the recent clashes have negative implication to the achievements made. In this regard, the government has to be more active and responsive to respond to the public’s demand. It should not let outsider forces interfere in the internal matters of the country. In other words, the facts on the ground which resulted in public discontent should not be taken over by subjective agendas of outside forces.
What is more, government’s ears have to be closer to listen to the public’s cries. Addressing the issues of good governance may not be an overnight process. It may take time. But, this should not be used as an excuse for not addressing the public’s concerns. Individual concerns must also be considered and taken into consideration while addressing the question of the public. All forms of malpractices in the political system should not be left unresolved. Any individual who pose a challenge for the progress of the political system the political procedures has to be detached from the system. Any excuses should not be left unchecked that would hinder the democratization process.
(Source: The Ethiopian Herald)
Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, in a press briefing on Tuesday this week (August 30) made it clear that the government had the responsibility to carry out its mandate to maintain law and order and that it was ready to deal with its weaknesses and carry out necessary reforms as a matter of urgency. He referred to the wave of demonstrations and clashes that have recently taken place in the Oromia and Amhara Regional States. The government, he said, would never abrogate its responsibility to maintain peace, law and order. It would not allow the illegal demonstrations, violent clashes or criminal attacks on property that have been disturbing the peace of the country, to continue.
The Prime Minister also expressed his confidence in the ability of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) to resolve problems quickly. The Prime Minister’s press conference followed the conclusion of last week’s meeting of the EPRDF Council that evaluated the party’s 15 years’ journey on the path of reform. The Council decided on the necessity to consolidate reform so as to curtail weaknesses among the party and government bodies. The Prime Minister said the meeting of the Council was fruitful and it “recognized the need to resolve the problems and ensure partiality to the public.” The Prime Minister emphasized that the government and the party were ready to address challenges facing them. He said the “government is ready to address its limitations; we will resolve our limitations through the current reform path that we pursue.”
The Prime Minister said the central issue discussed at the Council meeting had been abuse of government power for personal gain. Recalling that the party’s ultimate objective had always been to work for the benefit of the public, he said the current situation showed this had not been happening. This was what made reform so important, the need to rectify such tendencies and meet the expectations of the public and improve the situation. The Council meeting had agreed on the necessity for power to be used properly to serve the public. Rectifying any tendency to misuse of power would provide the opportunity for the party to get back on track for future development as well as resolve other problems, he said. The Prime Minister said “the EPRDF is a party with a capacity to deal with such challenging times by resolving problems.”
The Constitution, of course, guarantees the right to hold peaceful demonstrations but any demonstrations have to meet the required procedures. These include acknowledgement of responsibility by the organizers and agreement with local administrations over the proposed time and place. Legally, any demonstration must agree to remain peaceful, refrain from violence, the use of force or arms, and avoid disrupting day-to-day public activities or civic engagement. In the absence of these, any demonstration are unauthorized and illegal. In a number of cases these demonstrations have been accompanied by wanton destruction of property and unnecessary violence. Even worse, this has lives being lost. This is totally unacceptable. The government deeply regrets any loss of life that has occurred during the protests. As in similar situations in the past, it will make sure that those responsible for violence or illegal acts during the protests, or responsible for any undue use of force, will be brought to justice. The outcome of any investigations will be made public.
Ethiopia, today, is using a democratic developmental state model to deliver a socio-economic transformation to the country. This has significantly enhanced the country’s resilience as has been demonstrated by the success in dealing with the serious droughts in 2011 and last year. Equally, there are legitimate public concerns and genuine grievances over a lack of good governance in certain areas and a perception of widespread corruption. The government and the party have been slow to respond to the criticisms. Another problem has been the failure to provide all the services and improved facilities that the country’s development has led people to expect. A common concern across the country is the shortage of jobs for youth particularly in urban areas and a belief that regional administrations are affected by corruption and nepotism. There have been concerns that relate to a lack of awareness and understanding over the details of the federal arrangements in the Constitution.
The government, at both regional and federal level, is already responding to many of these issues. It has been conducting an extensive series of consultations with the public, holding discussions with youth, community elders, religious figures, teachers, civil servants, urban residents and members of rural communities in affected areas, and other elements of civil society. It has been conducting a series of peace and development conferences across the country, particularly in areas affected by recent unrest. It is making major efforts to improve and reorganize government bodies and structures, and their operations, to make them more effective and responsive, and ensure transparency and accountability. As the Prime Minister noted in his press conference, the government is planning to hold further discussions for revised youth employment opportunities to benefit a majority of the younger unemployed. This was emphasized by the Prime Minister in a face-to-face discussion with youth drawn from across the country on Thursday this week (September 1). The government is also launching independent investigations into the causes of the violence.
While there is plenty of scope for constitutional demonstrations and protests in Ethiopia, the recent illegal demonstrations show clearly that some of those involved have come from political organizations with extremist aims. They have twisted legitimate concerns over inclusivity, lack of good governance or issues of self-administration, into a framework of ethnic exclusivity and encouragement of violence. This had led to violence and lawlessness, and encouraged the involvement of criminal activity, leading to loss of life and destruction of property.
In fact, irrespective of the cause of the protests, the situation provided fertile ground for those, wanting to destabilize the country or push it in different directions. The Prime Minister himself said foreign elements who do not want to see Ethiopia use its natural resources were distributing huge amounts of money to extremist Diaspora groups. In fact, this is not confined to those organizations which are given arms, money and support by the regime in Asmara, and which, like “Patriotic Ginbot”, make no secret of their aim to overthrow the government by force.
Those taking advantage of the situation include critics of Ethiopia or supporters of Eritrea like Bronwyn Burton at the Atlantic Council who organized a roundtable in Washington on Wednesday this week. This offered two opposition politicians the opportunity to discuss the current state of political affairs in Ethiopia without contradiction, allowing them to hold forth on what they claimed had been “primarily peaceful demonstrations”, the cost of living, lack of employment opportunities and a restrictive political and media environment. The meeting offered an entirely uncritical platform for opposition, ignoring government efforts to respond to legitimate grievances and the reforms that have been and are being introduced. It also ignored the evidence of widespread criminal activity and violence among the demonstrators.
The New York Times Magazine Newsletter, similarly, produced a long, effusively flattering, if seriously misleading and exaggerated, panegyric of an opposition politician this week. Berhanu Nega, head of an organization based in Asmara, is openly dedicated to violence and terrorism, trying to overthrow the government in Addis Ababa by force. The author makes no effort to question his subject’s comments and claims about Ethiopia’s development or question Berhanu’s own activities, though he does appear slightly uneasy about Berhanu’s decision to turn to Eritrea’s “dictatorship for support”. He quotes Berhanu saying “Here is a country that was willing to give us sanctuary, a country that had once been part of Ethiopia. I look at any of these people, I talk to them, and they are just like me, they are as Ethiopian as I am. Why should I not get help from them?” Berhanu says Eritrea is not corrupt, that the UN report describing crimes against humanity is an “exaggeration”, adding “I don’t want to butt into their personal issues, they’ve always been nice to us.” Yes, indeed!
Far too many of the reports about Ethiopia manage to ignore the positive and accentuate, frequently exaggerate, the negative. In part this appears to be a simple lack of effort to keep up to date. Equally, it can indicate a desire to push an agenda as they often appear to search out areas to criticize. It is an approach that leads to the sort of headline in the UK’s Financial Times on Monday “Ethiopia has to loosen its grip on the economy: the authoritarian development model is running up against limits.”This is an all-too-brief article that manages to over-simplify both the problems and the developments in the country. The article fails to substantiate its headline which makes a specific point in support of an agenda, in effect that Ethiopia should open up its economy to outside control. Accurate reporting, fair comment is always acceptable. Support for an external agenda is not. (Source: MFA Ethiopia)
Read all the highlights tweeted by the Ethiopian Embassy in London from PM Hailemariam’s press conference given on 30 August 2016:
https://storify.com/EthiopiaEU/highlights-from-pm-hailemariam-s-press-conference
Ethiopia is among the oldest independent states with more than 3000 years of history. It also remained independent during the scramble of Africa and the resulting colonization of the continent by European powers and hence has preserved its historical traditions and values intact. Besides possessing numerous man-made and natural tourism attractions, the country is believed to be the cradle of humankind, as it is the founding place of Lucy, a 3.2 million-year-old member of Australopithecus afarensis. This makes it among the top tourism destinations in the world.
For example, CNN’s Sophie Eastaugh said the following points regarding Ethiopia’s tourism attraction on her July 17, 2015 report. “You would be forgiven for thinking it was Spain, Thailand or Italy. But this year the accolade of World Best Tourism Destination has been given to a surprising candidate: Ethiopia.
“The country has been praised for its outstanding natural beauty, dramatic landscapes and ancient culture, leading the European Council on Tourism and Trade to select it out of 31 countries as this year’s top holiday spot”.
The number of people who visited the country has increased by 10 per cent over the last decade, according to the Ethiopian Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Last year, more than 600,000 tourists visited Ethiopia, attracted by its beautiful national parks, 3,000 year-old archaeological history and nine UNESCO world heritage sites.
Tourism contributed an estimated 4.5 per cent to the country’s GDP last year, generating nearly a million jobs and over two billion dollars in revenue, according to the World Bank.
The Ethiopian Tourism Organization has predicted that one million tourists are expected to visit Ethiopia this year. The Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation also mentioned in its (EBC, July 26, 2016 news report that the number of tourists visiting the country this year is expected to hit one million, doubling the number of visitors from just three years ago. It is already stated that more than 750,000 tourists visited this year enabling the country earn more than a billion dollars besides creating millions of jobs at home.
Ethiopia’s ancient Orthodox Christianity has endowed the nation with thousands of churches and monasteries, some of them enshrined as UNESCO World Heritage Sites – the most notable one being the rock hewn church of Lalibela. A succession of empires and kingdoms also added medieval forts, palaces and tombs like the Gondar citadel and the towering stones of Axum obelisk.
“Tourism had been on the back burner for a long time,” says Solomon Tadesse, CEO of the Ethiopian Tourism Organization (ETO). “The country was going through major changes and the government’s priorities were health, education, communication.”
A tourism transformation council was established to provide direction to the industry and the ETO was created to handle marketing, promotion and product development.
The tourism push coincided with a massive upsurge in foreign investment from China, India, Turkey and other nations that boosted GDP with an annual growth rates of around 10 per cent. Addis Ababa is in the midst of a building boom that includes a massive expansion of Bole International Airport and a number of new hotels. With the Ethiopian economy going like gangbusters, tourism is slowly but surely moving to becoming on of the most lucrative sectors.
The national capital has a new light rail system (the first in Africa) and the Chinese has undertaken the 4-billion USD task of rebuilding and modernizing the old railroad line between Addis and Djibouti. A brand new superhighway whisks traffic through the Great Rift Valley south of the capital while a nationwide road improvement campaign is rapidly improving land transport between other major cities.
Provincial capitals are getting new airport terminals. Celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, the national air carrier is in the midst of a massive expansion that includes the latest Boeing and Airbus aircrafts. The route network is also growing, with New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Dublin, Cape Town and Manila added since early 2015.
With more than 400 hotels and massive infrastructure improvements throughout the country, Addis Ababa is ready to accommodate considerable number of tourists as per their interests. Construction of new hotels is also well under way in the other places. Addis Ababa-based Jacaranda is developing luxury properties on the shores of Lake Tana near Bahir Dar, on a hilltop above the ancient stele of Axum, on Simien Mountains National Park and overlooking historic Gondar.
The tide is turning for Ethiopia’s tourism industry, as the Ethiopian Ministry of Culture and Tourism recently announced it plan to triple the number of foreign visitors, to more than 2.5 million, by 2020, with an ultimate goal of making Ethiopia one of Africa’s top five tourist destinations [by 2020 says a journalist from Daily Mail.
The second Growth and Transformation Plan II (GTP II) is being successfully implemented and it is believed to make Ethiopia among lower middle income countries. The massive construction of railways with the aim to connecting remote towns, villages with the capital is expected to make land transportation more efficient and comfortable and hence instrumental to attracting tourists. The modern road and express way construction are also another assets in attracting tourists who are interested to visit the country’s tourist attractions. State-of-the-art hotels that are being built by foreigner and local investors are also another ways of solving the difficulties faced by tourists who want to visit the country. What make GTP II instrumental for the development of the tourism sector is because of the fact that it is aiming at lifting
the country from poverty and transforming it into a middle income country by constructing modern infrastructures, increasing agricultural products and creating stable macro economy. This is believed to create conducive environment for doing business, attracting potential investors and tourists. If it is managed to achieve these lofty goals, it would make it possible for the Ethiopian Tourism Commission to implement the plan to attracting more than two million tourists and creating million jobs by 2020. That is an ambitious plan yet feasible.
In concluding remarks, Ethiopia must speed up and upgrade infrastructural and modern hotels development, as well as public relations activities and promotion to realize the plan of improving the contribution of tourism to the national economy. The political stability must also be maintained. If these activities are accomplished successfully, then the tourism sector will become one of the pillars of the policies and strategies set by the government to defeat poverty, realize development and deepen the democratization process going on in the country.
Then what must be done is a massive public relations activities as done by other countries that are successful in promoting their tourism potential to the global communities and managed to attract large number of tourists and hence earn billions of dollars every year. The best examples in this regard are countries like Thailand, Japan, Kenya, Egypt etc. to mention few. This is very essential as Ethiopia prides itself of establishing a reputation as one of the most stable countries in Africa with unique natural and historical tourist attraction sites which have some 5000 years of history.
(Zeraye Hailemariam, The Ethiopian Herald)
