Addis Ababa, 8 December 2014 (WIC) – The 9th Ethiopian Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Day of was colorfully marked in Benishangul Gumuze Regional State today.

The celebration was graced by the presence of President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, President Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti and other high-ranking government officials, including Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

Prime Minister Hailemariam of the occasion called on nations and nationalities of Ethiopia to scale up their support for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

He said the economic growth registered during the past years is the result of the joint efforts and collaborations of all nations and nationalities of the country.

He said that the adoption of the Constitution has laid the foundation for Ethiopians to exercise their right as well as benefit from development gains.

He finally called on nations and nationalities of Ethiopia to play their part in the efforts to make the upcoming election fair, democratic and peaceful.

Speaker of the House of Federation (HoF) Kassa Teklebrhan on his part said the day marks the constitutionally guaranteed rights of nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia to benefit from development.

He added that the Constitution is the foundation of Ethiopia’s renaissance and is creating a generation of development patriots.

In the past 20 years, Ethiopian nations, nationalities and peoples have contributed a great deal to eradicate poverty, ignorance and backwardness.

He further called on Ethiopians and the Ethiopian Diaspora to intensify their efforts in developing Ethiopia.

Guest of Honor, President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir also expressed his profound joy to take part in the event. He said his government will continue to enhance people-to-people as well as government-to-government cooperation between the two countries.

Ismail Omar Guelleh, President of Djibouti and the other Guest of Honor at the event, said this year’s celebration is unique in that it is being marked in the 20th anniversary of the ratification of Ethiopian Constitution.

Chief Administrator of Benishangul Gumuze Regional State, Ahmed Nasir, said the regional state has registered tangible results in the infrastructure, social and economic sector following the adoption of the constitution.

Over 4,000 participants drawn from all nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia, ambassadors and invited guests attended the event.

The Gambella Regional State was chosen to host the next Ethiopian Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Day.

Addis Ababa, 2 December 2014 (WIC) – Prime Minister Hailemariam has left for Germany leading a high profile delegation.

The PM will meet the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and members of the Bundestag on ways of improving German financial and technical assistance to Ethiopia.

The Premier will also hold talks with members of German businesses and present Ethiopia’s investment opportunities.

Germany is playing a crucial role, particularly in aiding university reforms through technical and financial assistance. (Text: FBC, Image: bundeskanzlerin.de)

Addis Ababa, 01 December 2014 (WIC) – During the second phase of the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II), which runs from 2015 to 2020, Ethiopia is going to spend a total of USD 20 Billion Birr on its power development program.

Commenting on this Mekuria Lemma, head of Strategy and Investment Division at the Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP), said this expenditure is in line with what the nation has been spending annually in the past three years, USD Two Billion.

The head disclosed this at the “Powering Africa: Ethiopia Meeting”, a meeting held at Radison Blu and organized by the UK-based company, Energy Net Ltd.
The USD 20 Billion is going to be spent on the construction of 10 to 12 additional power generating projects, Mekuria noted. He furthered he wishes to see the finance for these projects to be raised from domestic sources, which are also going to be supplemented with loans.

Construction materials for the projects are mainly going to be supplied from local resources. 60 percent of the inputs are going to be from local sources while the rest 40 percent is going to be covered from foreign investors interested in investing power generating projects in Ethiopia, Mekuria explained.

According to the head, as an incentive the Ethiopian government is going to offer tax cuts for foreign investors. They are also encouraged, with the exception of power distribution, to invest in building, owning as well as operating power generations.

Currently Ethiopia is undertaking different projects targeting to generate close to 10,000 Megawatts. By the end of GTP II, the nation intends to have a capacity of generating a total of 15,000 Megawatt. In addition to this, the government plans to extend the electricity coverage of the country to 99 percent from 55 percent where it stands right now.

According to Mekuria, Ethiopia promotes mix of energy by developing renewable wind and geothermal sources to achieve the intended goals. (Fortune)

The European Union Training Mission in Somalia (EUTM Somalia) has said it aims to train another 1,200 soldiers for the Somali National Army in 2015. This would approximately match the number of soldiers it has trained this year. The 128-strong EUTM Somalia team in Mogadishu has already completed 11 training courses involving 1,150 trainees, and in the coming weeks another 250 Somali soldiers are expected to complete their training. An EU military official said on Wednesday that the mission had set itself a target of training a further 1,200 soldiers in 2015. He added that getting the instructors from their living quarters to the training site remained an onerous problem due to the heavy protection required to guard against attacks by Al-Shabaab.

Addis Ababa, 26 November 2014 (WIC) – Ethiopia on Tuesday announced that it will be deploying about 210 volunteers to Ebola-hit West African countries in two weeks.

Responding to the call of the African Union (AU) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in the country’s commitment to the African solidarity, Ethiopia earlier pledged to provide support to the Ebola-affected West African countries by deploying health professionals, said Ahmed Imano, Director of Public Relations and Communication at the Ministry of Health.

Ahmed said the East African country had also pledged to provide financial support amounting half a million U.S. dollars to support the intervention in addressing the epidemic. To implement the pledge, Ethiopia has recruited the 210 volunteers out of the 1,100 registered volunteers, according to the director, who was speaking to the press in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. The volunteers would be deployed in the three most affected countries — Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

“As a member country to WHO and African Union, we prepared volunteers, preventive measure takers to these affected countries. We already recruited 210 volunteers from 1,100 registered volunteers totally and we are trying to send them,” said Ahmed. Ethiopia’s mission comprises doctors, public health officers, nurses, field epidemiologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, laboratory and health education experts among others. In addition to their assistance in addressing Ebola, the volunteers will share Ethiopia’s best practices in public health development towards community. mobilization to halt the spread of the virus within shortest time possible in the mission countries, according to the Ethiopian Ministry of Health.

The director also reiterated that Ethiopia has been undertaking various activities and preventive measures since the news of the Ebola outbreak was heard. Screening is being undertaken at Bole Airport in Addis Ababa, he said, adding training and awareness raising activities are being carried out throughout the country by varied means. “We tried to establish national committee to prevent Ebola virus from Ethiopia, and we also established technical taskforce to plan and implement preventive measures within the country,” he said. He said Ethiopia has been implementing the preventive measures in a strengthened manner to prevent the virus from entering the country.

The volunteers from Ethiopia will stay for about three months in the mission countries. (Xinua)

Addis Ababa, 20 November 2014 (WIC) – Ethiopian Airlines hopes a decision to open up intra-African aviation routes will be fully implemented in 2015, the airline’s chief executive said on Thursday.

Many African states adopted the Yamoussoukro Decision in 1999 to open up intra-African aviation routes but so far the decision has not been implemented by governments, meaning air travel between countries in Africa largely remains restricted.

“The hubs that we see today in South Africa, Kenya, and Abuja are not developing as well as they should because inter-Africa traffic is still restricted,” Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, told the CAPA World Aviation Summit in Antwerp.

He said he hoped a meeting between heads of state in January 2015 would deliver progress.

“Ethiopian will of course be taking advantage of that but the biggest beneficiary will be Fastjet ,” he said, referring to the low-cost airline that has plans to create Africa’s first pan-continental airline.

Gebremariam said this and other problems, including heavy taxation and poor infrastructure, meant African carriers had not developed as fast as they should to take advantage of predicted market growth.

Airlines body IATA says eight of the 10 fastest growing markets in terms of percentage growth in passenger demand over the next five years will be in Africa.
Gebremariam said non-African carriers now accounted for 80 percent of travel between Africa and the rest of the world, up from 40 percent in the 1980s. (Reuters)

Dr Tedros, Minister of Foreign Affairs, held discussion with the European Union Foreign Affairs High Representative, Ms. Federica Mogherini in Copenhagen on Wednesday (November 19). Dr Tedros said Ethiopia appreciated the continued cooperation and the support provided by the European Union to help the country achieve development, democracy and good governance. The Minister said the good relations between Ethiopia and European Union member countries could be strengthened by boosting investment, trade, tourism and technical cooperation. He briefed Ms. Mogherini on the situation in South Sudan and Somalia. Dr Tedros said European Union support for Somalia should continue to enhance efforts to realize a developed, democratic and stable Somalia. He also noted that the comprehensive and inclusive IGAD-led peace talks on South Sudan were bringing the warring parties towards a resolution to their conflict. Ms. Mogherini welcomed Ethiopia’s commitment and efforts to realize a developed, secure and stable state in Ethiopia as well as provide for these benefits for the region, for Africa and more widely. She reiterated the EU’s commitment and support to the development of Ethiopia.

Addis Ababa, 20 November 2014 (WIC) – The Ethiopian Road authority says it is working hard to complete the construction of 43 road projects in this Ethiopian fiscal year. Communication Director with the Authority, Samson Wendemu told WIC that the authority plans to complete these projects so as to attain the Five Years’ Growth and Transformation plan (GTP).

The construction of the road projects will cover 2,787.5 kilometers of road, Samson said, adding that the majority of the building expenses are covered by the government and the rest is covered from donors and loans.Participations of local contractors and consultants in the road construction projects are increasing from time to time. According to Samsom, 31 of the projects are under construction by local and 12 of them by foreign contractors.

The completion of the road projects will link districts to districts, zones to zones, regions from regions and the country with neighboring countries, he said.The Ethiopia Road Authority totally plans to undertake the construction of 294 road projects with the annually allocated budget of 29.9 billion EB in this budget year.

Addis Ababa, 19 November 2014 (WIC) – Dr. Tedros, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, talks with the FOSS Foundation’s Senior Vice President for Global Sales and Marketing in Copenhagen on Tuesday.Dr Tedros said that having co-operation and close relations with high-tech companies like the FOSS Foundation which focuses on high technology and research to find solutions to agricultural problems was essential for Ethiopia’s efforts to transform the country’s agriculture to necessary mechanized and high-tech levels.

The Minister noted that the Ethiopian government had made the transformation and improvement of the agriculture sector and production mechanisms a priority. He pointed out that the country had huge and untapped areas of arable land, sufficient water, comfortable weather and a wide variety of agricultural ecological zones.
These ranged from lowest place on earth, the Dalol depression hundred meters below sea level, to the Roof of Africa, Ras Dashen, more than four thousand meters above sea level.

FOSS Foundation Senior Vice President, Mr Henrik Wiboltt said that the Foundation had great interest in working on agriculture technology, research, and the search for dedicated solutions for agricultural production in Ethiopia.ccording to MoFA, the Minister assured the FOSS Foundation representatives that the Ethiopian government was committed to provide all possible and necessary support for a FOSS branch in Ethiopia.

Addis Ababa, 19 November 2014 (WIC) – Ethiopia’s Minister of Communication and Information Technology with the rank of Deputy Prime Minister to coordinate the Economy and Finance Cluster, Dr. Debretsion Gebremichael, and French Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Promotion of Tourism and French Nationals Abroad, Mr. Matthias Fekl, opened the second Ethio-French Business Forum in Paris on Monday (November 17).

The Forum aims to expedite economic cooperation as well as an opportunity for the business persons of the two countries to network.

The meeting, at the French Agency for International Business Development (UBIFRANCE), brought together around 30 Ethiopian firms and contractors and representatives of almost 150 French firms, including many from Small and Medium Enterprises and intermediate-sized companies.

The Forum is another step in the deployment of economic diplomacy to promote business-to-business cooperation and sustain Ethiopia’s ongoing economic growth.