Addis Ababa, 6 January 2015 (WIC) – Almost all of Ethiopian regional states have finalized their Diaspora housing program directives and are preparing to start the housing program registration.

Representatives from the regional state Diaspora offices with Ministry of Foreign Affairs Diaspora Engagement Affairs General Directorate held a meeting on the Diaspora housing development program progress review on December 12, 2014 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).Progress on the preparation of directives by the regional states, finalization and standardization of the program were the meeting agenda, according to Feisel Ali, Diaspora Engagement Affairs General Directorate director.

The regions shared experiences on the issues and drew important ideas to incorporate to their directives from the meeting, stated Abreham Gebremedhin, Tigray Diaspora Coordination Office head.Model registration procedures are sent from the Ministry’s Diaspora Directorate to all the regions, which the regions adopt based on their region’s area, land lease price, standards of urban areas where construction will take place and construction cost, explained Fiesel.

Almost all regional states have completed their directives, except Harari, Benishangul Gumuz and Afar, said Fiesel.In Addis Ababa only, apartment houses are planned to be built, according to Addis Ababa’s Diaspora Housing Development Directive. The apartments can be a G+4 or above but if the construction is taking place in the central zone of the city only a G+12 and above apartment building are allowed, according to Tesfa Bisrat, head of Diaspora Coordinating Desk with the rank of assistant advisor to the mayor.The apartments will be built in group that contains either 12 or 24 members and 50sqm of land is allocated for each member for the house, stated Tesfa.

The Tigray regional state completed and approved its Diaspora housing directives in June 2014, according to Atakilt Gebreyhiwot, Tigray Urban Development, Trade and Industry Bureau director. We have outlined an initial directive on how to proceed with the housing program but the directives can be improvised based on the interests of the house buyers as well as important guidelines we would like to include in the directive, stated Atakilt.

Tigray has planned to include apartment housing with two floors or above in all parts of the region, he said. The houses can be two, three or four bedrooms houses, according to the directives. The two bedrooms house will rest on 60sqm-80sqm with the price tag of 424,390Br. The three-bedroom house will cost 573,500Br and rests on 80sqm-100sqm. The four-bedroom house will rest on 100sqm-136sqm with the cost of 779,960Br.

Another region, which has already completed its Diaspora housing directives, is the Oromia region. The region has included in its directives an apartment as well as town housing program, according to Bayissa Hirko, Oromia Industry and Urban Development Bureau, senior expert of housing transfer and administration.

The apartment will be G+4 or above, having two, three or four bedroom houses, he added. The two-bedroom house will rest on 80sqm land and costs 400,000Br, where as the three-bedroom will cost 550,000Br and rests on 100sqm land; the four bedrooms will be built on 110sqm land and will cost 700,000Br. The town houses will have a G+1 and G+2 format and will be built on 120sqm and will cost 500,000Br and 800,000Br respectively, explained Bayissa.

The Southern Nations, Nationalities & Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) has categorized its urban areas in different levels, with Hawassa as a leading city. The rest are categorized as high-level, mid-level, town and developing towns, according to Aschalew Kassaye, SNNPR Industry and Urban Development Bureau, housing development and administration. The distinction was made based on population number, area, economy and service provision of the towns, explained Aschalew.

An apartment and a town house are to be built in the region, according to the directive. Only G+4 and above apartment houses will be built in Hawassa with two, three or four bedrooms which rest on 50sqm, 65sqm, and 80sqm respectively while a G+3 apartment will be built in high-level towns. The apartment houses can be two, three and four bedrooms, which will rest on 55sqm, 70sqm and 85sqm of land, respectively. Only G+1 and G+2 town houses can be built in mid-level towns that have two, three or four bedrooms and built on 60sqm, 75sqm, and 90sqm, accordingly. For the developing towns only the construction of a single storey town house construction is allowed, stated Aschalew. It will have two, three or four bedrooms, which rest on 65sqm, 80sqm and 90sqm of land respectively. But cost decisions will not be finalized until January 9, 2015, he added.

Dire Dawa has only planned the construction of G+2 and G+3 town houses, according to Sebsibe Mekonnen, the city’s Diaspora affairs coordinator. The houses will have two, three and four bedrooms, which rest on 128sqm, 160sqmand 200sqm, respectively, with 582,400Br, 728,000Br, and 910,000Br cost.

The payment will be made in hard currency, 50pc upon registration and the rest when construction begins, according to Feisel. An Ethiopian Diaspora who has never owned a house by his name or through his relatives can register for the program. It is possible to register collectively forming 12-24 members, stated Fiesel. The home buyers can come up with their own design but as for hiring a contractor of their choice, some regions’ directive compels them to hire only government contractor.

The directives are a work-in-progress, which could be modified based on the discussion, stated Sebsibe. We are trying to come up with standardized and similar directives and most of the directives reflect this, stated Fiesel. The directives, which are collected from the regional Diaspora offices, have been distributed to Ethiopian embassies. When all the regions complete the preparation, then we can proceed to the registration phase as we are now completing the work plan schedule, added Feisel. (Addis fortune)

Addis Ababa, 5 January 2015 (WIC) – Ethiopians around the world are striving for the realization of the Grand Ethiopian dam being built along the Nile, Office of the Council responsible for resource mobilization said.

The government through the national council established to mobilize resources I n and out of the country has been striving to raise funds for the dam, which Ethiopia declared to build using its own sources.

Resource mobilization has been undertaking parallel with the construction of the dam since construction has begun years ago.

According to Zadig Abreha, Deputy Director of the Office, those efforts has brought promising results and Ethiopian across the globe are continued to extend their support.

Ethiopians in and out of the nation has extended over 6 billion Birr for the dam, of which 4.92 billion Birr or 82 percent gained in donation, while the balance is from bonds.

Raising funds through mobile SMS is another means the Council is using to get more funds locally. The Council has received over 14 million SMS worth at 42 million Birr over the past three months, Zadig said. The Council expects 60 million Birr from the program lasting for six months.

Ethiopian Diasporas are supporting the Dam through finance, said Teferi Melese Diaspora Research Information Director.

The Diasporas have purchased bonds worth at over 565 million Birr; Ethiopians residing at Arab countries have the lion’s share in terms of contribution. (ENA)

Addis Ababa, 5 January 2015 (WIC) – Ethiopia earned 1.16 billion US dollars in revenue from the export sector in the first five months of this Ethiopian fiscal year, according to the Ministry of Trade (MoT).

Ministry Public Relations Head, Amakele Yimam, told WIC that the revenue was secured from the export of agricultural, manufacturing and mining products.

The revenue earned during the reported period has shown a 10.67 per cent increase compared to the same period the previous year, he said, attributing the increase to a rise in the price of agricultural products at the global market.

According to Amakele, the export of agricultural products generated over 861.8 million US dollars from the total revenue, showing 20 per cent increase compared to the same period last fiscal year.

Pulses and oilseeds have made significant contribution for the raise in revenue, showing 31 and 23.62 per cent increase respectively compared to the same period the previous year, he said.

Ethiopia envisaged earning 5 billion US dollars from export trade this budget year.

Addis Ababa, 2 January 2015 (WIC) – Opposition political parties that are going to contest in the upcoming May elections said they are preparing to be strong competitor.

Opposition parties that ENA has interviewed with said they have already started activities that will help them become strong contestants in the election.

President of Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum (Medrek) Beyene Petros (Prof) told ENA that his party is being prepared to be strong contestant at the elections.

The preparation of election manifesto and registration of candidates are among the preparation being carried out.

President of the Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP), Dr. Chala Kebede said apart from contesting in the elections, the party is working to make it peaceful and democratic.

The Party, one of the signatories to the joint political parties’ council, is striving to actively participate in the council, which he said helps to resolve disputes.

The other Party, United Ethiopian Democratic Forces disclosed that it has already finalized registration of candidates.

President of the Party, Guish Gebre-Silase said the party is going to contest in the nine states. “As the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces is a national party, we are willing and preparing to compete in the nine states. Although we have limited resources we are trying to assign candidates to all regions.”

He lauded the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia for supporting parties regarding finance and provision of trainings on crisis management.

The President urged the Board for the continuation of the support during the election process also, saying his party didn’t encounter any challenge so far.

President of the United Ethiopian Democratic Party, Admasu Hailu for his part said that his party is on the right track to compete in the elections.

“We are in good shape to cast candidates in every part of the country.” he said.

According to him, the Board should work hard to widen the playing fields in order to make the election free and democratic.

Chairperson of the Board Merga Bekana (Prof.) asserted that the political space in Ethiopia has never been wider than now.

“We in the Electoral Board say the political space is wide. When we say it is wide we mean that the service we are providing is satisfying. First we are providing training for the parties using the best people in the area. Second we have a close relation with the parties. We are solving challenges by consulting with regional administrations.”

According to Prof. Merga, the Board has been striving to make the 5th election more successful than the previous ones. (ENA)

The Addis Ababa’s light rail way project worth $475m would be completed by the end of January, the project manager told reporters. The project manager, Behailu Sintayehu,said that 80% of the track has been laid and the rail way would be completed at the end of January, 2015. The commissioning period is going to take another three months for the first passengers to be on board, he stated. The light rail way consists of two lines running for a total distance of 32km. It will have underground and over ground sections, 39 stations, and two operators that are the Ethiopian Railways Corporation and Shenzhen Metro.The $475m cost of the scheme is mostly being met by a loan from China’s Exim Bank, and the construction work has been undertaken by the China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC). The light rail way of Ethiopia will be the first urban metro light rail scheme to be built in a sub-Saharan country outside of South Africa.

Addis Ababa, 29 December 2014 (WIC) – Some 33 million voters are expected to be registered for the upcoming general elections to be held in May, the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) said.

Board Public Relations Director, Demisew Benti, told WIC the stated number of voters is expected to be registered during the voters’ registration to be conducted from January 9-February 19/20015.

He said all the necessary preparations have been made for the registration, including distribution of registration records and other related election materials.

According to Demisew, polling stations will officially resume works beginning from January 8, 2015.

He said NEBE is providing awareness raising training to youth, women, teachers, heads of civic society, journalists and other stakeholders so that they would contribute their share for the elections.

According to a report released by International Democratic Election Agent (IDEA) recently, over 29 million out of the 31 million people registered to vote in the 2010 Ethiopia’s general had cast their votes, he said.

The data proves that 93.4 per cent of the voters had cast their ballot, showing a high turnout compared to Africa’s average turnout at 67.3 per cent, he said.

Addis Ababa, 29 December 2014 (WIC) – Economic scholars said Ethiopia’s debut exercise at the capital market by issuing a 1 billion USD sovereign bond will help it to sustain the economic growth.

The scholars whom ENA has interviewed asserted that it will have positive influence on the economy by strengthening the financial system, attract more foreign direct investment, increase role of the private sector and get additional hard currency.Dr Tasew woldeHana, an economic lecturer at Addis Ababa University, a state-owned institution, told ENA that the economic growth witnessed over the past 10 years has resulted in huge demand for capital, energy, communication facilities and other infrastructures among the public.

Underlining the fact that meeting this growth driven demand requires huge sum of money, the capital market could be an alternative source of finance.“Failing to meet this demand will create a difficulty in keeping the momentum of the economic growth” Dr Tasew said.According to him, injecting huge amount of money to the infrastructure development will have good returns, since infrastructure is a backbone to the whole economic activity.

As the government decided to utilize the money on infrastructural programs, he pointed the importance of the decision by indicating that the county needs to improve its infrastructure facilities as it is at the initial stage in this regard and doing that will better off the economic performance.

According to Dr. Demelash Habte, an economics lecturer at Unity University, a private institution, capital market provides good opportunity to create efficient, effective and organized financial system and sustain economic growth.

In the long run, the capital market will create an opportunity to the private sector to secure funds for their projects thereby become an impetus for the growth.

The finance secured from the capital market will add energy to the consecutive economic growth of the country, noting that growth came so far using limited resources.

Noting that lack of resources were the major reasons for development projects to lag behind the plans, Dr Demelash said this new financial resource will help the government address challenges related to finance.

Joining the capital market, the government can now enhance the economic growth by establishing an investment bank and introduce an organized stock market, he suggested.

For his part, Senior Macroeconomic Expert Dr Eyob Tesfaye said the capital market will help to change the country’s economic dependence on import-export trade, bilateral and multilateral grant or loan.

He said it will also provide a good opportunity for Ethiopia to attract more foreign direct investment, in which the country is working at to strengthen its economy.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister HaileMariam Dessalegn has disclosed last week that the finance secured from the capital market will be used to fund construction of new sugar factories and industrial zone.

Addis Ababa, 23 December 2014 (WIC) – The second National Coffee Day was celebrated in Bonga town, Kaffa zone, SNNP Regional State today.

During the celebration, some 145 coffee grower farmers and stakeholders represented from various regional states received an award and medal.

In Ethiopia, 1.3 million small farmers are directly dependent on coffee for their livelihoods, while 15 million people utilize coffee indirectly for their income, Agriculture Minister, Tefera Deribew, said on the occasion.

Though coffee accounts 10 per cent of the total agricultural GDP, a lot need to be done to increase productivity and become competitive at the global market, he said.

Chief Administrator of SNNP Regional State, Dese Dalke, on his part said following the efforts made to increase productivity, farmers managed to reap 14-30 quintals of coffee per hectare.

Dese finally called upon all stakeholders to increase productivity through effectively utilizing the untapped resources of the region and implementing modern farming system.

High-ranking federal government officials as well as invited guests attended the event, it was learnt.

Hailemariam Desalegn said the response to the epidemic in west Africa should not be “only for the non-Africans”, urging African states to respond to an African Union appeal to send medical staff to affected areas.

“We should show that there is a solidarity within the African countries,” he told reporters.

“Usually the notion is that whenever this kind of epidemic happens, it is the Western countries and other big countries that have to be involved,” he said.

But he added: “We have to break this and show that Africans also are there for Africans. We should try our best to bring African solutions to African problems.”

Last week Ethiopia sent 187 health volunteers to Sierra Leone and Liberia, the largest contingent of medical professionals from any African country since the Ebola crisis began. Desalegn said a further 1,000 volunteers were ready to go.

A number of African states, however, are reluctant to send volunteers, due to either a lack of means or fears they are not equipped to deal with any who return infected with the virus.

Ethiopia’s health minister, Kesete Birhan Admasu, said the Ethiopian volunteers returning home would be placed under medical surveillance for three weeks.

But he has also called on African nations to accelerate efforts to establish a continental centre along the lines of the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Had we have established this centre last year, Africa might have responded early and could have contained the virus,” he said.

Source : AFP
Image: Florian Paucher/ AFP File

Addis Ababa, December 22, 2014 (WIC) – Ethiopia has been undertaking various efforts to bring lastin peace and stability in the region; thereby, to pursue regional economic integration based on mutual benefit, PM Hailemariam Desalegn stated.While briefing journalists at his office today, the Premier said that Ethiopia is exerting efforts to strengthen people to people and government to government relations of countries in the region.

According to the Prime minister, a meticulous attention has given to ensure an enduring peace and stability to speed up regional economic integration.The necessary road infrastructure that could help to economically integrate Ethiopia with Djibouti, Sudan, Kenya and South Sudan has already built, he added.Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn also said that the Ethiopia Public Diplomacy recently visited Egypt had discussions with the people of Egypt and public officials.“That visit could help in strengthening people to people relationships and avoid misunderstandings between the two nations,” he said.The Egyptian President will visit Ethiopia in the coming weeks for further discussion with Ethiopia that is believed to firm the relations of the two countries, Prime Minister Hailemariam added.

In ensuring peace and stability in Somalia, Ethiopian defense forces have liberated 65 per cent of Somalia from Al-Shebab, according to Hailemariam.He also disclosed that Ethiopia has been offering trainings that enable Somalis secure their country from extremists.In connection to the economic development in the country, Premier Hailemariam Dessalegn said that despite encouraging achievements in agriculture, micro and small enterprises and industrial developments, the Sugar development Projects have delayed from the time scheduled in the GTP.

The major setback the country faced in Sugar Development Projects is lack of domestic implementation capacity, the premier emphasized.Besides, the projects need to develop about 25 thousand square hectares of Sugared Cane plantation farm.The first phase of Tndaho Sugar Factory has already begun production while the Kesem Sugar Factory is expected to render its produces in the next four months.“Ethiopian metal Engineering Corporation has now taken the construction of Kuraz I, Beles I and and Beles II Sugar Factories, which relay indicated the experience we have been developing from time to time, the premier added”.