Privatization program mobilization revenue shift to GERD
The government has decided to put the revenue collected from its privatization program to the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project.
Officials told The Reporter that the privatization program has collected more than three billion birr from the selling of government companies.
Recently, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegne confirmed that there is no financial constraint threatening construction of the GERD. Speaking at the 39th regular session of people’s representatives last Thursday, PM Hailemariam said that the construction of the dam will never stop due to a shortage of finance.
The public is expected to contribute 10 to 15 percent of the required amount for construction, while the federal government and the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation will cover the balance.
There questions as to how the government will cover the expense, if bonds and bank loans do not cover the costs.
According to sources, The Reporter has learnt that the government can cover the GERD project from privatization revenue. Last year, the government sold 314 state-owned companies, earning 12.8 billion birr. It is now planning to sell 84 governmental organizations, expecting to earn 3.3 billion birr.
Police arrest nine EEPCO officials suspected of corruption
The Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and Federal Police have arrested two senior officials from the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) and seven other engineering officials for their involvement in the illegal purchase of transformers in 2006.
Among the suspects, the two senior officials are Sheferaw Telila, EEPCo’s rural electrification distribution vice executive and Mesfin Birhane, the distribution system vice head.
Among the seven officials from the engineering sector, are Mekonn Birhane, Pharis Adem and Million Matusalla.
Back in 2006, about 5000 transformers were purchased based on an agreement with an Indian company, Kubra, but they were said to be poor quality and led to a dispute. However, based on conditions of purchase, a refund was not possible.
The Indian company was blacklisted due to these problems.
Some of the suspects appeared in court on Tuesday, with the rest scheduled for Wednesday.
Ethiopia looks to the South for applied science, technology
By Asrat Seyoum
The Ethiopian education sector is planning to turn to the newly emerging economic powers – China, India, South Korea and Brazil – to remodel and reorganize its Applied Science, Engineering and Technological (ASET) departments to fit the growing need of its budding manufacturing development.
Deputy Prime Minister and outgoing Minister of Education, Demeke Mekonnen, while opening a workshop on ASET skill development organized jointly with the World Bank, said that currently Ethiopia is at a critical stage of economic development, where it has to reevaluate its tertiary and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), to gauge whether it has the capacity for further growth. “How can a large investment in education accelerate the economic development?” he asked.
The workshop was the first of its kind on the continent, where African countries –Ethiopia, Guinea, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan and Tanzania – got the chance to deliberate on the shortage of skilled manpower which haunts their infant manufacturing sectors. The four economic powers, dubbed the partners, were present to shed light on the severity of the shortage of skilled human resources, speaking as major players in the manufacturing sector of the region. Being the biggest FDI investors on manufacturing activities in sub-Saharan Africa, the partners met the education sector leaders of each of countries they invest in and informed them of their predicament in recruiting skilled labor.
Huajian Shoes Factory, one of the major FDI investment companies in Ethiopia, faced a similar problem while setting up its company in Ethiopia. In fact, the company had to train some of its labor force in China to fit its standards. Three years ago, the Ethiopian government took notice of the human resource problem and devised a comprehensive strategy, where 70 percent of the overall educational training program was to be focused on applied science and technology. Furthermore, the ministry of education also tried to forge a strategic alliance with Germany to restructure the engineering and technology facility at the Addis Ababa University. However, the issue of meeting the demand of the manufacturing sector in terms of a skilled labor force remains a problem.
Nevertheless, it looks like the technology and TVET sectors in Ethiopia might be soon looking to the partner countries for inspiration. Commentators hold different views regarding the decision of the African states to look into Asian and Latin American economies for inspiration.
The three-day workshop, the new south-south partnership on the areas of applied science, engineering and technology, was conceived in Addis Ababa. The World Bank is tasked with making the workshop a periodical event – every six months or one year – and to take care of any facilitation issues.
AfDB, WTO Review Aid Impact On Africa’s Trade
VENTURES AFRICA – To enhance the contribution of aid to trade in Africa, the World Trade Organization, this week held the 4th WTO Global Review of Aid for Trade (AfT) in Geneva, which had the African Development Bank Group President Donald Kaberuka in attendance.
Brought together by numerous Ministers, Heads (or Deputy Heads) of International Organizations and private sector leaders, the global review is the pre-eminent forum for discussing trade and development issues on how Aid for Trade can help firms in developing countries to develop productive capacity and connect to value chains.
In his keynote address, Kaberuka observed that over the last decade Africa had witnessed remarkable growth in trade and investments. He noted, however, that despite growth, African firms continued to trade at the lowest rung of the global value chains ladder, exporting primary commodities while importing finished goods – a situation that would not be sustainable in the long run.
The AfDB President underscored the many opportunities for value chains to be upgraded through intra-regional trade and noted that African policy-makers needed to invest in developing a better understanding of regional and global production patterns and how they could plug into them. He emphasized that, to a great extent, one of the structural bottlenecks hindering the competitiveness of African firms was lack of infrastructure. The meeting was informed that the African Development Bank was working on an innovative financing vehicle called the Africa50 Fund in order to leverage the Bank’s track record in infrastructure, Africa’s natural resources, internal savings, external support and capital markets to finance bankable, high-return, transformational regional infrastructure projects.
A joint report prepared by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the WTO titled “Aid for Trade at Glance 2013” was also launched during the Aid for Trade event.
The report points to the swift recovery of South-South aid, investment and trade since the downturn. It stresses that structural changes in patterns of global trade were becoming increasingly apparent with some 60% of merchandise trade now being in intermediate products. The report concludes by recommending that developing countries and donors scale up their efforts to improve the effectiveness and results of Aid for Trade.
Source: http://www.ventures-africa.com/2013/07/afdb-wto-review-aid-impact-on-africas-trade/
Development news briefs from ENA sourced here:
http://www.ena.gov.et/Default.aspx?Lang=0
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