On Wednesday 22nd of October 2014, H.E. Ambassador Teshome Toga presented his credential to H.E. Mr. Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the President of the Republic of Estonia.

Presenting his credentials, Ambassador Teshome conveyed the greetings and good wishes of Ethiopia’s President Dr Mulatu Teshome, for the well-being of the President of Estonia and for the welfare and prosperity of its people. He also noted that his appointment will strengthen the already existing relations of the two countries. Ambassador Teshome further discussed Ethiopia’s economic growth and its role in promoting peace and security of the region under the auspices of IGAD. The President on his turn appreciates the relations between the two countries and Ethiopia’s role in promoting peace and security in the region. During the discussions, both sides identified ICT, promotion of trade and investment as major areas of the cooperation between the two countries. Ambassador Teshome appreciates the ICT development of Estonia and expressed Ethiopia’s interests to share the system as Ethiopia plans to increase the size of mobile users to 60
million in the next five years.

During his stay in Estonia, Ambassador Teshome also met with officials from the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Economic affairs and Communication, as well as representatives from the Estonian Parliament and discussed the present socio-economic and political status of the Ethiopia, and areas of cooperation between the two countries. He also held talks with the Mayor of Tallinn Edgar Savisaar, with whom he exchanged views on city to city twining especially between Axum and Tallinn as both share archeological historical similarity. Both sides mentioned the need of strengthening people to people relations through tourism and tour operators. During a meeting with the Director of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, it was agreed to initiate cooperation between the Estonian and Ethiopian private sectors. The need to organize a forum where the investment opportunities of Africa could be explained for Estonian entrepreneurs was reiterated. The Meeting he had with Gourmet Coffee board members of Estonia was successful as they are convinced to visit Ethiopia for a week between end of November or beginning of December, opening the door for direct coffee trading between the two countries.

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves with Ambassador Teshome Toga and an Ethiopian diplomat from our Embassy.

 

Ethiopian Ambassador Teshome Toga during the playing of the Estonian Anthem.

Addis Ababa, 27 October 2014 (WIC) – The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon and World Bank Group President, Dr. Jim Yong Kim arrived here today for a two day visit to discuss key development priorities with government officials and development partners.

The visit is intended to a new Horn of Africa Initiative to support regional economic development, peace and security. Dr. Kim and Ban will hold joint meetings with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn later today.

The two officials will also hold discussion with bilateral agencies as well as ambassadors representing countries in the Horn of Africa to discuss how the World Bank and the United Nations can promote inclusive growth and shared prosperity in the region.

Ethiopia is one of the founding members of the World Bank Group. Its current portfolio consists of 25 projects with $6 billion in commitments.

This is the largest country program in the region and among the sectors it covers are energy, roads, agriculture, water supply and sanitation, education, health, social protection and social safety nets.

The private sector arm of the World Bank, the IFC, also provides more than $200 million for investment and advisory services, and plans to invest an additional $300 million.

Addis Ababa, 27 October 2014 (WIC) – The television news report by the  Michael Buerk in 1984 framed Ethiopia for a generation as a place of famine and in need of salvation.Almost 30 years later the country is hailed by pundits as an “African lion” after a decade of stellar economic growth.

Now further evidence of its turnaround has arrived with research showing that Ethiopia is creating millionaires at a faster rate than any other country on the continent.The number of dollar millionaires in the east African nation rose from 1,300 in 2007 to 2,700 by September this year, according to New World Wealth, a consultancy based in the UK and South Africa.

That figure puts the country well ahead of Angola, up by 68%, and Tanzania, which had a 51% increase. Zambia and Ghana completed the top five.
The study finds that the rise in millionaires has been closely tied to GDP growth, in which Ethiopia has also fared best over the past six years achieving 93%, followed by Egypt (81%) and Angola (61%).

The authors note, however, that Ethiopia started from a very low base, and it’s per capital wealth is still just $470 (£287), compared to $3,187 (£1,948) in Egypt and $7,508 (£4,588) in South Africa.
Andrew Amoils, a senior analyst at New World Wealth, said: “The economic and wealth growth in Ethiopia over the last five or six years has been really strong. There has been a lot of privatization and certain sectors are growing well. It’s a huge upswing but it started from a low base.”As in other parts of Africa, however, the growth is not necessarily shared.

“The millionaires are growing at a faster rate than the middle class, which doesn’t really exist in a lot of African countries, including Ethiopia,” Amoils said. “Angola, for example, has had massive millionaire growth in the last 10 years but that hasn’t spilled through to the average Angolan.”
But whereas much of Africa’s boom has been driven by mineral resources, leading sectors for millionaires in Ethiopia include agriculture, manufacturing and transport.

A construction boom is underway in the capital, Addis Ababa, but Amare Abebaw, a social entrepreneur, said the rest of the world does still did not appreciate the country’s extraordinary transformation.

“When I go home and watch TV I still see the famine from the 80s and I wonder how do they still show this on the BBC when things have improved here? It is painful for us. We know it is part of our history but we want to focus on the present.”
South Africa is the top African country for millionaires with 48,700 in 2013, followed by Egypt with 22,800 and Nigeria with 15,700. (africanbusinessforum.com)

Addis Ababa, 24 October 2014 (WIC) – The European Union (EU) on Thursday announced the approval of five million Euros for Ethiopia, to enable the country to effectively deal with the influx of refugees from South Sudan.

Kristalina Georgieva, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, who made the disclosure in Addis Ababa, said that the fund would enable the African nation to respond to the needs of the increasing number of refugees.

Georgieva disclosed that Ethiopia had received 31 million euros this year, for the tackling of refugee crisis.

She said that the aid was channeled to the government of the country through humanitarian partners, including UN agencies and non-governmental organizations.

She said the new financing followed the influx of 190,000 additional South Sudanese refugees into Ethiopia, bringing the total refugees’ number in the country to 643,000.

“The catastrophe happening in South Sudan has a huge impact throughout the region.

“Since the crisis erupted last December, Ethiopia has given refuge to many South Sudanese,’’ she said.

Georgieva added that the funds would help to meet the basic needs of the refugees, which included shelter, food, water and health.

She said that the high influx of refugees was adding to vulnerabilities in Ethiopia, which was prone to drought and flood. (EU)

 

Ethiopian FM Dr Tedros at Investment forum in Norway, in October 2014 (Image: Geeska Afrika)

Addis Ababa, 21 October 2014 (WIC) – Ethiopia has given top priority to the kernel of the entire diplomacy; economic diplomacy, as the nation has one formidable enemy; poverty or backwardness.

To effectively combat and eradicate poverty and backwardness, one has to pursue economic diplomacy which would enable it to attract more investment, trade, tourism among others, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted.

Economic policies adopted by the government in the last two decades have played an instrumental role in developing the country’s economy. Ethiopia has become one of the ten fastest growing countries in the world. Its past tarnished image of poverty, backwardness and war is being gradually reversed, the Ministry said.

In an exclusive interview with The Ethiopian Herald Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Ambassador Dina Mufti said that the major economic diplomacy framework aims at attracting investment from foreign countries, promoting massive Foreign Direct Investment and ensuring proper technology transfer among others.

“We give emphasis to expanding the frontier of our relations to all corners of the world. In principle, as Ethiopia is part and parcel of the global community, it should have a vibrant tie with every country. If you ask me the distribution of Ethiopian councilors and embassies, I can assure you that they are scattered all over the world but basically we try to have embassies and consulates where things matter most,” the Ambassador said.

Ambassador Dina further said that nowadays the role economic diplomacy plays is immense. Recognizing this fact, economic diplomacy tops priority areas not only on Ethiopia’s diplomacy orbit but also on all nations’ diplomacy hubs. That is why Ethiopian diplomats are currently busy in speeding up the development of trade, the expansion of investment and the strengthening of relationships. They acquaint the country’s potential investment alternatives to the global business community, Ambassador Dina said.

Ethiopia’s trade link among different nations is gathering momentum. But this is not enough given the nation’s untapped and immense investment opportunities in the fields of agriculture, livestock, agro-processing, manufacturing, industry, construction and tourism.

Ambassador Dina said, on annual bases, Ethiopian ambassadors come together at experience sharing and idea cross-fertilization forums. On such occasions they discuss among themselves, congratulate over achievements, exchange recommendations over limitations and cheer out the yearly plan they envisage. They also get orientations on new phenomenon and new areas of focus. They as well conduct series of seminars. The objective is to strengthen their capacity especially where gaps are apparent. In such forums, he noted, ambassadors will be familiar with the new development within the country.

However, “Currently due to financial reasons and logistics we cannot have embassies all over the world but basically we have embassies in some major countries, specifically, countries that we call strategic partners.”

The nation does have diplomatic relations almost with all countries of the world, with over 180 countries. But here it must be noted that Ethiopia does have diplomatic relations where it even does not have embassies.

Approached by this journalist to have his say on the matter instructor of Political Science and International Relations at Addis Ababa University Demeke Achiso (PhD) on his part noted that, “Economic diplomacy tops the political agenda of every government in the 21th century. The same is true with the Ethiopian government. “Our representatives and top officials have committed themselves more to the economic issues.”

Economics and politics are the two sides of the same coin. As it is true of other nations, conducive political environment is basically needed to ensure sustainable economic development in Ethiopia, he said.

After ensuring democracy, peace and security as well as stabilizing regional security governments are now looking for economic diplomacy, because the key question for every society is the question of betterment, employment and income, Demeke said.

As to Demeke, the Ethiopian government is creating conducive environment to investors that come from abroad to invest in Ethiopia so as to improve national GDP and individual’s living standard in every aspect.

Yet now, we are not in a position to argue that the government’s economic diplomacy is 100 per cent successful. “Currently we are witnessing unprecedented success stories in Ethiopian history as compared to the era of the previous regimes,” he said. (EH)

This was noted at a press conference recently by Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association (ECEA) to give a briefing on the 3rd International Ethiopian Coffee Conference, which will be held on November 6-7, 2014 at Hilton Addis.

In addition to this, Ethiopia is chosen as a ‘Portrait country’ – for Arabica Coffee producers, for the 27th annual Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) event, to be held on April of next year at Seattle, Washington.

This increasing international spotlight that’s bestowing upon Ethiopia’s coffee sector is a result of the two previous conferences staged by Ethiopian Coffee Exporters’ Association, according to the Association’s press release.

Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association (ECEA) was established with an objective to encourage the production of quality coffee by promoting coffee export and by collectively resolving problems its 125 member faces.

To this end, the Association believes that the annual conferences have wide-ranging benefits running the gamut from serving as a platform for coffee exporters and buyers, to having a positive impact on the country’s tourism.

The previous conferences have helped promote Ethiopia’s coffee to a wider audience; building and maintaining, for the large part, the legacy and place of the country in the coffee world, according to the President of the Association’s Directors, Hussein Agran .

Aiming at maintaining this successful steam, the 3rd International Ethiopian Coffee Conference will be held under the theme “Towards Quality and Tracebility”.

As a country with an immense potential the lights of which can make it stand next to Brazil and Colombia, Hussien believes that the conference will create the opportunity for the country to utilize its full potential. “Generally, the conference will help the country get all the benefits that it should out of the sector”, says Hussien.

Going by the Press release of the Association; discussions, panel discussion and research papers that focuses on Quality and traceability of coffee will be held during the two-day conference.

The conference will look for ways to turn Ethiopia’s legacy as home to the finest coffee, which was demonstrated recently with its win at the world’s largest blind-tasted food awards, to a high-quality product that can rack-up high premium price return to the country.

“Discussions on how the country can improve its quality and various papers on the relation that exists between quality and price and its benefits will be presented at the conference,” said Alemseged Assefa, Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association General Manager.

Tapping into the growing demand for traceability in agricultural products, especially in the foreign market and consumers, this edition of conference aims at establishing traceability for its coffee products and expand the market reach of the sector.

“There’s a project initiated to make Ethiopian coffee traceable, that would be undertaken by Ethiopian Commodity Exchange/ECX starting from next year”, says Alemseged, “not many countries have moved into endeavor.”

This will give Ethiopia a head-start in this aspect, whose benefits ranges from benefiting the farmers to increasing consumer confidence in Ethiopian Coffee. The General Manager also added that countries like Kenya and Uganda have already requested to take part in the conference to gain experience from Ethiopia.

It’s expected that major players in the sector, various researchers, Ethiopian coffee buyers association and international coffee organizations will take part in the conference.

Finally, the association has called on coffee exporters, both member and non-members, and those interested in the coffee industry to register and take part in the conference. (EH)

Addis Ababa, 18 October 2014 (WIC) – A Business Forum entitled ‘Invest in Ethiopia’, organized by the Norwegian African Business Association was held in Oslo, Norway on Thursday (October 16).

The Forum aimed to build a new chapter of cooperation between Norway and Ethiopia and was attended by high-level government officials from both countries as well as members of business confederations and representatives of Norwegian companies.

Presentations were made about the business opportunities available in Ethiopia and the Forum reached a consensus that there was growing interest among investors to engage in the various possibilities.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister, Dr. Tedros Adhanom, who attended the Forum, said it demonstrated new possibilities to strengthen cooperation between Norway and Africa and more especially with Ethiopia.

It would boost bilateral relations between Norway and Ethiopia, he said, and increase investment and economic partnerships to add to the excellent relations the two countries already had in their strategic and political links.

Dr. Tedros noted that Norway has proclaimed its partnership for the implementation of Ethiopia’s Climate Resilient Green Economy strategy and its support for the country’s clean energy development as well as for the agriculture and forest sectors.

Dr. Tedros briefed the audience on Ethiopia’s achievements in various sectors of its pro- poor development strategy which provides a development focus for the majority of people living in rural areas, and gave an account of Ethiopia’s achievements in meeting the Millennium Development Goals and some details of its fast economic growth.

In conclusion, Dr. Tedros provided eight reasons to invest in Ethiopia: its political and social stability, a supportive macroeconomic policy, its strategic geographic position, an abundant labor force, a conducive legal framework, competitive incentives, one of the lowest corruption levels, and a generally supportive environment for foreign direct investment. (MoFA)

Addis Ababa, 13 October 2014 (WIC) – Ethiopia has achieved the MDG goal one, halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture said.

Ethiopia is among the 63 developing countries have reached the MDG target.Ethiopia is also among the 25 countries that achieved the more ambitious World Food Summit (WFS) target of halving the number of undernourished people by 2015.

The nation has managed to reduce undernourished people to 35 percent, which 20 years ago was 75 percent, the Ministry said.

The various activities being undertaken by the government to increase food security has contributed for the success.

According to the Ministry, Ethiopia along with the other countries will be honored at the 150th FAO Conference to be held in December.

The agriculture sector, growing by 8 percent in average is contributing for the overall development of the country and this achievement, the Ministry said.

According to reports, Ethiopia has made commendable progress towards reaching most of the MDGs. Apart from the overall decline in poverty, positive gains have been made in terms of education, health and reducing the prevalence of HIV and AIDS. These advances are owed largely to the Government’s efforts, with substantial support from the UN.

The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI 2014) report issued by FAO confirmed a positive trend which has seen the number of hungry people decline globally by more than 100 million over the last decade and by 209 million since 1990-92.

The overall trend in hunger reduction in developing countries means that the (MDG) of halving the proportion of undernourished people by 2015 is within reach, the report said.

To date, 63 developing countries have reached the MDG target, and six more are on track to reach it by 2015. (ENA)

Addis Ababa, 13 October 2014 (WIC) – Ethiopia is planning to earn a total of over $2.5 billion revenue from its exports of agricultural products during the current budget year, which began in July, an official with the Ministry of Trade said on Sunday.

“The stated amount of revenue will be secured from the export of more than 1.1 million tons of agricultural products,” Abdurrahman Seid, Public Relation Deputy Head of the Ministry, told Anadolu Agency.

He said the products include coffee, oil seeds, cereals, khat, spices, natural gum and incense among others.

“The revenue is projected to surpass by 16.3 percent that of the $2.1 billion income earned during the previous budget year,” he added.

The target is taking into consideration the growth of agricultural products, market system efficiency, capacity of the exporters and suppliers of the products, he said.

The biggest export item will be coffee followed by oil seeds, Seid said.

Around $862 million of the total revenue is expected from the export of coffee, which contributes the lion’s share in the country’s economy, he said.

“The country will also export 362,422 tons of oil seeds and secure over $724.8 million revenue in this fiscal year,” he added.

Coffee is believed to have been first discovered in Ethiopia’s south-west region of Kaffa/Caffa, with its name derived from the region.

Africa’s largest coffee producer, Ethiopia generated some $718 million from coffee exports during the 2013/14 financial year. (Journal of Turkish Weekly)