Monday, March 17, 2014-ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia plans to build a new international airport on the outskirts of capital Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian Airports Enterprise (EAE) said Monday.”The enterprise has already identified three locations for the construction of the new airport,” EAE head of public relations Wondim Teklu told Anadolu Agency.

According Teklu, traffic through the city’s main airport, the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, is growing by 22 percent per year and a new airport is needed to accommodate the increases.

“Modjo and Dukem, respectively located 70km and 30km southeast of Addis Ababa, as well as Tefki, 39km west of the capital, are the suggested sites to build the airport,” he said.”Bidding will be arranged for consultancy to select the site and also for the design work,” he added. “Once the appropriate site is selected, the next step will be to look into the cost and financial sources for the construction of the airport,” Teklu noted.

Simultaneously, the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport – which currently processes 150 flights a day – will be expanded with the use of a $225-million loan from the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim). China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) will carry out the work, which will include the expansion of the main passengers’ terminal and construction of a modern VIP terminal, Teklu said.”The expansion work will be carried out in a way to efficiently utilize space and give improved service to passengers,” he said

The new terminal will be able to serve some 22 million passengers annually. The existing terminal can currently serve only 6.5 million passengers a year.

Teklu said that a previous airport upgrade ten years ago had increased the capacity of the airport apron to allow it to accommodate 45 large aircraft, up from a previous 19.

When the previous airport expansion project was undertaken at a total cost of 1.2 billion Ethiopian birr (roughly $62 million), it had been assumed that the airport would be able to absorb anticipated traffic increases until 2017.

Source:http://www.turkishpress.com/news/395572/

 

Over recent years there has been an increasing amount of interest in Africa as a continent with immense resources and potential. Ethiopia in particular has been singled out as a land of growth and investment opportunity.

Ethiopia grows some of the world’s finest cotton and has a rich textile spinning and weaving history, yet it’s importance on a global scale remains insignificant.

With several government incentives in place, a priority given towards developing the textile and clothing industry across the value chain, a viable business environment and duty free market access to both US and EU, Ethiopia is now beginning to attract international buyers and investors, as this report demonstrates.

Having experienced approximately 8% GDP growth consistently since 2008 and a stable political framework since 1995, it still remains largely un-touched, un-explored and un-tapped.

“We have 3 million hectares available to grow cotton but we are using only about 6 to 7 percent of this resource. You can imagine the potential that we have in this segment.” Seleshi Lemma, Director General Textile Industry Development Institute.

The report sets the scene on one of the oldest countries in the world, now the fourth largest and second fastest growing economy in Sub Saharan Africa.

It will show how the textile and garment sector in Ethiopia has set ambitious targets to expand rapidly by 2015.

The textile and clothing sector is considered as the key priority sector of the Government‘s Industrial Development Strategy as part of the Growth and Transformation Plan

With a vision to become a world – class institute by 2024, TIDI’s mission (The Textile Industry Development Institute of Ethiopia) is to enable the Ethiopian textile industry to compete globally by providing sustained investment promotion, consultancy, training, research, laboratory and marketing support and services.

One of Ethiopia’s strategic objectives is to increase product diversity and product categories across various parts of the value chain to build the backward integration and to open new market access opportunities.

Already we are seeing Several Ethiopian designers making it onto the regional and international fashion stage.

Expect to see “Made in Ethiopia” emerging more and more over the coming years.

Source:http://www.just-style.com/market-research/ethiopia-the-emerging-textile-and-clothing-industry_id196030.aspx?lk=ea

Monday, 24 February 2014 ,Addis Ababa:Global Trade Development Consulting and its Project Development Partner, Energy Ventures, both US companies, announced that they have been awarded the contract by the Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy and the Board of Directors of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation to build, operate, and transfer three 100-MW solar farms in Eastern Ethiopia.

Solar PV Electricity generating systems are emerging renewable energy technologies and can be developed as viable option for electricity generation in future. This project also improve the provision of power supply in terms of quantity and quality through the enhancement of generation capacity mix of the Ethiopian national grid system and reduction of system losses and provision of alternative electricity green energy solution. The Integrated energy policy of Ethiopia envisages electricity generation installed capacity of more than 20,000 MW by 2020 and substantial contribution would be from renewable energy, resource.

Ethiopia is in the initial set of countries in President Obama’s “Power Africa” initiative. In addition to the needed power generation capacity, this 300 Megawatt Solar Project will contribute to economic development resulting in the creation of more than 2,000 construction jobs that would inject additional revenue to the Ethiopian economy. Ongoing plant operations would yield several hundred new jobs as well.

According to the Honorable Minister Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of Water, irrigation and Energy for the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, “this project represents a significant advance in our Ethiopian energy initiative and is now part of our comprehensive Energy Plan. Given Ethiopia’s large hydro-electric generation capacity and now wind and geothermal power generation coming on-line, large scale solar fits nicely into our energy portfolio and will provide significant power generation capacity much faster than the other renewable technologies. We welcome this project with open arms.”

“We spent months analyzing the potential for a large-scale solar project in Ethiopia. We found that Ethiopia has some of the highest solar irradiance factors in Africa,” said Dr. Yonnas Kefle CEO of GTDC.  He added, “As with all our projects, we intend to maximize the amount of local resources in the performance of this project.”

Ms Tigist Mamo, COO of GTDC, emphasized that “the project performance which is so far accelerating in the right direction intends to engage local resources while working to ease the existing energy problem.” According to Ms. Tigist, Ethiopia needs the Solar PV Electricity generating systems to enhance its fast social and economic development.

“We are excited to be the Project Developer leading this important project for Ethiopia. The powers that this project will deliver have a dramatic effect on millions of Ethiopians’ quality of life,” said Lynn R. Hogg, Founder and CEO of Energy Ventures.

Source: http://213.55.98.22/enae/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1685:ethiopia-approves-3-new-solar-projects&Itemid=205

Brussels, 17 February 2014/ ACP: The ACP Eminent Persons Group (EPG) will hold its fourth round of consultations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 24 – 26 February, to gather views from stakeholders in the region on the outlooks for the 79-member African, Caribbean and Pacific Group.

As the largest intergovernmental grouping of developing countries in the world, the ACP is at a crossroads as it nears the end of its long-time partnership agreement with the European Community in 2020. The agreement provides the framework for ACP-EU political relations, economic cooperation and trade, as well as the disbursement of the European Development Fund (EDF), worth more than 32 billion Euro for 2014-2020.

Participants representing government, parliament, civil society, academia and private sector stakeholders from 15 East African member states have been invited to take part in discussions.

EPG Chair and former President of Nigeria Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is slated to open the event, with presentations from other high profile speakers.

EPG members from the region, including former Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organisation Ms. Valentine Rugwabiza, Former Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund Mr. Peter Gakunu, and Former Acting Special Representative for the UN Secretary General in Burundi Ambassador Nureldin Satti will also chair several sessions.

Key elements to be covered include the major achievements and shortfalls of the ACP Group in the past 39 years, its relations with the EU, its relations with other partners, its role in regional integration and regional/ global development agendas, financing issues, and next steps for the future. The aim is to gather views on the role of ACP in the region and the globe, and how it can position itself as a stronger organisation in the future.

The outcomes will feed into a final report by the Eminent Persons Group, to be submitted to the 8th Summit for ACP Heads of State and Government this December 2014.

Previous rounds of consultations were held successfully in Samoa (Pacific), Grenada (Caribbean), and Benin (West Africa). The next round of consultations will be hosted for the Southern African region in Angola, with only the Central African region remaining.

Source:http://www.acpsec.org/content/east-africa-talks-take-stock-acp-future

 

WASHINGTON, February 19, 2014 – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved funds to help Ethiopia upgrade the country’s road system, strengthen road maintenance and reduce travel time along inter-regional corridors.

The Road Sector Support Project is supported by a US$320 million IDA credit* as part of the $US385 million total project cost. The government of Ethiopia will contribute $US65 million. The project aligns with Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) and supports economic expansion by improving the quality of roads serving areas producing exportable agricultural products. By helping secure access to all-weather roads, the project will also help Ethiopia achieve its goal of halving the proportion of the population living below the poverty line.

“Ethiopia has experienced strong economic growth and has achieved substantial progress on social and human development over the past decade,” said Guang Zhe Chen, World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia. “Upgrading and maintaining the country’s road sector is an important part of our work in Ethiopia. Today’s project will help to enhance trade, create new markets, and provide improved access to education, medical services, and food security to the country’s poor.”

The Government of Ethiopia formulated the first phase of the Road Sector Development Program (RSDP) in 1997. Since then, the size of the road network has increased from 26,550 kilometers to 85,966 km, and the roads operating in good condition has risen from 20 percent to 70 percent. Today’s funds will build on these accomplishments and will be used to upgrade about 258 km of the Nekempte – Bure road, which provides an important link between the Oromia and Amhara regions. The upgraded road will help to reduce travel time and facilitate the marketing of wheat, vegetables and other agriculture crops.

The project also aims to enhance Ethiopia’s road asset management practices by supporting the maintenance of selected roads covering about 200 km; the Government will fund a further 200 km of road under a parallel financing. The funds will also be used to provide technical assistance to strengthen road asset management capacity, and prepare a road asset management strategy.

“Today’s project will benefit women and children by providing them with improved access, access to much needed education and medical facilities, including pre and post-natal care,”said Tesfamichael Nahusenay Mitiku, World Bank Task Team Leader. “Improved road conditions will also reduce the time that women spend transporting products to market, and will bring new opportunities for employment within small-scale, road-side commercial operations.”

At the center of the new operation is the adoption of an Output and Performance Based Road Contracting (OPRC). The road asset management system is expected to reduce the whole-life cost of road infrastructure, provide increased budget certainty for investment and recurrent expenditures, and improve the quality and sustainability of the network for road users.

Source:http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2014/02/19/wb-road-improvements-maintenance-ethiopia

 

Los Angeles Times

By Michael Hiltzik, February 17, 2014

Ethiopian Airlines   aircraft on the tarmac at Geneva following today’s hijacking. (Salvatore Di Nolfi, EPA   /

Today’s hijacking to Geneva of a Rome-bound Ethiopian Airlines jetliner brought back memories for us–not of hijackings of the past, but of this exceptional airline, which we flew all over Africa, often in in rather singular conditions, during the 1980s and early 1990s.

To get the most urgent news out of the way first, today’s incident was resolved without injuries to any of the 202 passengers and crew about the Boeing 767. Reports are that a co-pilot locked his colleague out of the cockpit when the pilot took a bathroom break after the plane departed Addis Ababa. The hijacker sought asylum in Switzerland. He surrendered upon landing and is now in custody.

Africa hands (we served The Times out of Nairobi, Kenya, from 1988 through 1992) think fondly of Ethiopia Airlines as the best African airline, by a wide margin–in fact, better than many Western carriers we can board at LAX. Its customer service reps and cabin crews were unfailingly pleasant and, more important; its fleet and maintenance standards met first-world standards.

Wherever you were flying in Africa, Ethiopian Air was the first choice; the only exception might be on a trip transiting between East and West Africa through Europe, when a flight on KLM, British Airways, or Swissair might be available. We’re still in possession of the last few gilded tumblers from a set of six presented to Ethiopian’s frequent fliers in 1991, in honor of its acquisition of Boeing 727s for its fleet.

The key to the aircraft’s success was that, despite being a government-owned company, it hewed to capitalist standards of profit and loss. That was true during the regime of Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, which ended in 1991, and during his rebel successor, Meles Zenawi, who died in 2012.

These governments plainly understood that a smoothly-functioning international airline was a magnet for desperately needed foreign exchange. That seems obvious, but it was a rule flagrantly violated by many other foreign regimes, whose leaders thought nothing of commandeering the national aircraft for personal travel, often on a whim. The worst and saddest case was Air Afrique, a West African carrier owned jointly by French airline UTA and a dozen Francophone countries, which was afflicted by rampant corruption and went bankrupt in 2002.

Ethiopian’s efficiency was properly legendary. Its hub was the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, a lovely, temperate city nestled among hills covered with evergreens–though during the Mengistu years the visas required to leave the airport transit lounge were hard to come by, especially for journalists. You might have thought that the efficiency of this hub was threatened in 1991, when rebels surrounded Addis, Mengistu fled the country and widespread disorder threatened.

But no: the day after Mengistu’s ouster, my flight from Nairobi into Addis was delayed by less than 30 minutes. I remember thinking that a snowstorm in Denver would have wreaked more damage to the entire U.S. air travel system than the deposing of the Ethiopian dictator did to Ethiopian Airlines’ flight schedule. It still would.

That said, flights on Ethiopian could be on the wild side. during the Ethiopian civil war, several came under rebel attack or hijack attempts. The most spectacular was a 1996 hijacking that ended when the plane ran out of fuel and ditched in the Indian Ocean off Comoros, well-documented by tourists on the beach. The crash took the lives of 123 of the 175 passengers and crew, including a friend, the veteran African photojournalist Mohamed Amin.

During one flight to Addis from Axum, an ancient northern city that claims proudly to have been the home of the Queen of Sheba, most of my fellow passengers boarded with live chickens in hand, presents for family members in the capital suffering through a food shortage in the disorderly post-ouster period. The trussed-up fowl were deposited unceremoniously in baggage closets and compartments like so many overcoats and pocketbooks. Every time a new passenger boarded and stowed his luggage on top of them, the entire plane echoed with deafening squawks.

Then there was Ethiopian’s attenuated route map; a cross-continental flight out of Addis might make four stops or more before landing in West Africa, making for a seemingly endless, exhausting trip. The original route of the 1996 flight that ended in the waters off Comoros was Bombay-Addis-Nairobi-Brazzaville (Congo)-Lagos (Nigeria)-Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire), which sounds typical.

Today’s hijacking notwithstanding, Ethiopian is still a first-class airline. it claims to be turning record profits, although its financial results are unaudited, and it’s the first African airline to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. If you’re looking for a sign that Africa’s economy is joining the rest of the world, there it is.

Reach me at @hiltzikm on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or by email.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-a-hijacking-20140217,0,4535793.story#ixzz2tgwxuoTF

Egypt’s Water Resources and Irrigation Minister, Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Moteleb, invited himself to Addis Ababa on Monday (February 10) this week, to hold further talks with Ato Alemayehu Tegenu, Ethiopia’s Water, Irrigation and Energy Minister on the implementation of the recommendations of the International Panel of Experts (IPoE) on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project (GERDP).

Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan have now held three rounds of discussions on implementing the recommendations of the IPoE on the GERDP. The three Water Ministers agreed on a number of important points at the first and second rounds of meetings on November 4 and on December 8-9. Differences appeared, however, at the third meeting in January when Egypt proposed setting up of a new International Panel of Experts along with the agreed national committee to oversee the recommendations. Ethiopia and Sudan agreed that this proposal, to establish a new International Panel of Experts in parallel with the proposed national committee drawn from the three countries, was unnecessary and the agreed national committee could provide adequate clarification and oversight for implementation of the recommendations.

The Egyptian delegation then put forward a new suggestion on principles of confidence building which was outside the agenda of the tripartite meeting. These proposed principles were also opposed to elements of the Cooperative Framework Agreement which Ethiopia has recently ratified and which have been signed by six upper Nile riparian countries. Both the Ethiopian and Sudanese delegations made it clear that the agenda of the tripartite meeting was to set up the necessary mechanisms to follow-up implementation of IPoE report and to settle any contentious issues that had not been agreed at the previous two meetings. These did not include new items of the sort suggested. The major element of the recommendations was for further studies on a water resource system/hydropower model and a trans-boundary environment and socio-economic impact study to be carried out in the context of the Eastern Nile System.

After the end of the third tripartite meeting, the Egyptian delegation said it would not return to the tripartite discussions, though Ethiopia made it clear that although three rounds of discussions had failed to resolve the issue, it still attached great importance to dialogue and further discussions to attain the objectives set by all three countries.  In fact, despite its denial of participation in further negotiations with Ethiopia and Sudan, the Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation made further requests to visit Addis Ababa at the end of January and early in February to further discuss the recommendations of the IPoE report. The original proposals for January 30 and February 4 were impossible as these coincided with meetings of the Eastern Nile Council of Ministers and ENTRO on those dates. Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Moteleb finally arrived in Addis Ababa on Monday this week and held talks with Ato Alemayehu Tegenu on the GERDP. Reports that he and a ministerial delegation had been invited by Minister Alemayehu for further negotiations on the GERDP were incorrect. Ethiopia has made it clear that it will not hold discussions with Egypt in the absence of the Sudan.

During his meeting with Ato Alemayehu, Dr Mohamed Abdel-Moteleb again presented the proposals over confidence building and other unresolved issues raised at the last tripartite meeting in relation to the establishment of a new international panel of experts. He raised no new suggestion or proposal for implementation of the recommendations of the IPoE report and the suggested additional reports. The Ethiopian side raised concerns over inflammatory and unjustified remarks made by Egyptian authorities, suggesting it was important for the authorities to refrain from such activity. The Ethiopian delegation emphasized that there was no option other than to continue discussions through the tripartite Water Ministers to consider the details of implementation of the recommendations and resolve their differences. The Ethiopian delegation also noted that it would be helpful to refrain from actions that might undermine confidence in each other. It emphasized the technical nature of their differences and the importance of resolving these amicably on a technical level. It also noted the need to participate in Eastern Nile programs within the framework of Nile Basin Initiative to which both were committed. It insisted that discussion and dialogue must be the guiding principles to bridge any difference, and emphasized the significance of cooperation at regional, basin and sub-basin levels in order to encourage mutual understanding and transparency.

The Ethiopian delegation also underlined that the issue of the principles of confidence presented by the Egyptian side had clearly been dealt within the Cooperative Framework Agreement. It had made this point during the three tripartite meetings. In addition, the Ethiopian delegation pointed out that it had accepted that any new international panel of experts could be formed if the national committee found itself in disagreement over the two studies which it would be mandated to oversee. Ethiopia and Sudan said establishing another international panel along with the national committee at the outset would be unjustified, since the need for another international experts’ panel would only come after completion of the studies and only if there was total disagreement. In any case, the studies themselves are to be given commissioned from independent international consultants, rendering any additional team irrelevant.

Water Minister Alemayehu also made it clear to Dr Abdel-Moteleb that Ethiopia was not ready to conduct further discussions in the absence of Sudan. It was unacceptable for Ethiopia to hold such talks outside the framework of the tripartite Water Ministers’ meeting. He also said that the suggestion that construction of the GERDP until Egypt had conducted further studies was not possible. As Prime Minister Hailemariam has said, construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a flagship project for the nation, will not be halted for a second. Minister Alemayehu stressed it would be built on schedule. As a project signifying the Renaissance of Ethiopia, GERD will be completed within its project timeline with the full participation of the Ethiopians at home and abroad.

At the same time, from the beginning of the GERD project Ethiopia has exerted every effort to address the concerns of Egypt and Sudan over possible implications of the dam on the lower riparian countries. On the basis that cooperation among Nile Basin countries was a central principle of Ethiopian policy, Ethiopia established the International Panel of Experts to encourage trust and confidence in Egypt and Sudan. The IPoE produced a report showing that the GERD would cause no appreciable harm to downstream countries and that it would provide a wide range of benefits to all three states. The report also suggested some recommendations to ally any still existing fears. Ethiopia, underlining its determination to respond to any concerns, immediately accepted these recommendations and started to implement them unilaterally and without delay. It also moved to implement the further studies suggested by the IPoE immediately, through the tripartite Water Ministers’ meetings. It has, in fact, made every effort to take into account the concerns of Sudan and Egypt, and will continue to do so as far as is actually necessary.

Source:www.mfa.gov.et, A week in the Horn,14.2.2014