Ethiopia fastest growing among landlocked countries
Written by Zeryhun Kassa
Ethiopia is exemplary in achieving the fastest economic growth among 16 landlocked African countries. This came at the opening of a conference that brings together African landlocked countries.
“Almaty Action” is a strategic agreement that happened 10 years ago among world landlocked countries intending to resolve challenges these countries face.
Now landlocked countries from Africa gather in Addis Ababa to see how the agreement is translated into action over the years.
State Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Ahmed Shide told the conference Ethiopia has achieved double digit economic growth over the last 9 years overcoming challenges by putting in place multimodal transport service and employing sea-ports of Djibouti and Sudan.
The conference recognizes the challenges the landlocked countries face like infrastructure development and poor integration of the economies which exasperate the situation of the already sea-port lacking nations. Due to such factors, trade volumes in these countries are 20% less than countries with sea-gate.
The conference is expected to identify current challenges the countries experience to find ways that can mitigate the problems and significantly increase their trade volume.
Action Plan to Eliminate HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria in Africa adopted
Written by Nesru Jemal
The African Union Special Summit of Heads of State and Government, held under the theme, “Ownership, Accountability and Sustainability of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Response in Africa: Past, Present and the Future”, which opened on Monday at the International Conference Centre in Abuja, Nigeria ended on Tuesday by adopting the Abuja Action Plan Toward the Elimination of HIV/AIDS Tuberculosis, and Malaria in Africa by 2030.
The Declaration highlighted the need to implement effective and targeted poverty elimination strategies and social protection program that integrate HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria for all, particularly vulnerable population, grant priority to the area of health in the post 2015 development agenda and the AU Agenda 2063 in general.
It also called for a focus on the elimination of HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria in Africa and the achievement on agreed upon targets by accelerating the implementation of the AU Roadmap on shared responsibility and Global solidarity for ATM response in Africa.
The Declaration thanked all development partners for their support to the “Abuja Commitment” and called on them to accelerate support for its implementation.
In his closing remarks, Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn said “the Summit is successful in that we were able to reflect on the achievement of the last decade and we had the opportunity to take stock of the many challenges we still continue to face in our campaign against these diseases.”
He added that the summit came a long way in realizing many of the objectives the Heads of State and Government set following the Abuja declaration in 2001 to provide access to life-saving services to people who were subjected to suffering and death.
Related story: http://www.ertagov.com/news/index.php/component/k2/item/1026-pm-hailemariam-calls-for-african-center-for-disease-control
Ethiopia wants more investment from US
Foreign Affairs State Minister, Ambassador Berhane Gerekirstos said Ethiopia wants more investment from the United States.
In an exclusive interview with Selam Radio, Ambassador Berhane, who is in the United States for a working visit, said more is expected from US investors to investment in Ethiopia and Africa.
Ethiopia and the United States have been enjoying warm and well-cemented government-to-government and people-to-people relations. The strong bonds of partnership and friendship have continued in the war on terror and ensuring stability in Africa and the Horn of Africa in particular, he said.
Ethiopia needs to further strengthen ‘this continued relations by attracting US investors to a nation with untapped potential coupled with abundant, low-cost and disciplined manpower,’ he said.
Regarding the current situation in Ethiopia, Ambassador Berhane said the country is registering an amazing and rapid economic growth and it is one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
He said poverty line has declined to 29 per cent in 2010 from 53 per cent seven years ago.
In order to ensure the sustainability of ongoing fast economic growth the government has attached due attention to the expansion of infrastructure and services, he said.
According to Ambassador Berhane, the government envisaged constructing 64,000-km rural road and raising Ethiopia’s power generation capacity to 10,000 MW by the end of 2015. Ethiopia is currently producing 2,200 MW power.
As part of a plan to raise nation’s sugar production capacity to 2.2 million tons by 2015 from 330,000 tons, the construction of sugar factories is underway in various parts of the country, he added.
As far as education is concerned, currently, there are 105 colleges and universities across the country, of which 31 are government universities. Over 20 million children enrolled to school across the country. Ambassador Berhane finally called on Ethiopian Diaspora to contribute their share for the growth of their country of origin.
GERD: 24 per cent complete
Some 24 per cent of construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has been completed, according to the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo).
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam was launched on April 2nd 2011 at Guba in the Beneshangul Gumuz Regional state of Ethiopia. It will be the largest dam in Africa and is expected produce 6000MW of power when completed.
During a discussion he held with Ethiopians residing in Canada, Mihret Debebe, CEO of EEPCo, said “The construction of the dam is progressing well and it is now 24 per cent complete.”
Design work of 500,000 kilovolt power transmission line that stretch from the Renaissance dam to other parts of the country has been completed, he added
Mihret pointed out that the country is currently undertaking hydropower and wind power projects with a capacity of producing 8,500 MW power.
Gibe III hydropower project, which has 1,870 MW installed power generation capacity, is going as per schedule and is expected to be completed by September, 2014, he said.
He added activities are also underway to launch other hydropower projects on Wabe Shebelle and Genale rivers.
Nespresso Adds Clooney, Fairtrade for Coffee Ethics Panel
Nespresso, the biggest maker of single-serve coffee, will introduce its sustainability program to Africa as it forms a board with the heads of Fairtrade International and Rainforest Alliance plus actor George Clooney.
The Nestle SA (NESN) division plans to start the program in Ethiopia and Kenya as well as try to help reestablish a coffee industry in South Sudan, Nespresso said in a statement today.
“We always need more coffee,” especially sustainable coffee, Nespresso Chief Executive Officer Jean-Marc Duvoisin said at a press conference in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Nestle is highlighting Nespresso’s environmental and labor standards of production as competition in single-serve coffee intensifies. Rival capsules that work in Nespresso machines probably squeezed the brand’s first-quarter sales growth to 8 percent, the slowest pace in its history, Jon Cox, an analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux in Zurich, has estimated.
“This is a great, big company working very hard to help people at the bottom,” Clooney, who already appears in Nespresso advertisements, said at the press conference. “It’s smart business.”
Nespresso has surpassed an objective of obtaining 80 percent of its coffee through the company’s AAA sustainability program, which started 10 years ago, Duvoisin said. Nespresso buys coffee from 56,000 farmers under the program and pays them a 30 percent to 40 percent premium to New York market prices. Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, India and Mexico are among countries where farmers take part in the AAA projects, according to Nespresso’s website.
“They benefit and we benefit,” Duvoisin said, adding that Nespresso relies on access to the top 1 percent to 2 percent of the best quality coffee.
Nespresso will introduce capsules with African blends next year, and it may help produce rare Sudanese varieties, Duvoisin said. The company isn’t raising prices to consumers, he said.
Ethiopian Revenue Authority Collects 84.2B Birr in Revenue
The Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority said it has collected over 84.2 billion Ethiopian birr revenue during the just ended Ethiopian Fiscal Year.
The Authority told Ethiopian News Agency on Tuesday that the revenue collected showed an increase of 13.56 billion birr compared to the amount collected in the previous budget year.
It said the revenue was collected from tax, non-tax, export trade excise as well as the national lottery.
In related news, the Addis Ababa City Administration has collected 9.34 billion birr revenue from tax, non-tax and municipality services during the just ended Ethiopian Fiscal Year. The Administration targeted to collect 9.15 billion birr, according to the Authority.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency
AAWSA to Begin Expansion Project of Sewerage Treatment Plant
The Addis Abeba Water & Sewerage Authority is to commence the expansion project of the Kalti Sewerage Treatment Plant, with US$100 million. The expansion project is jointly financed by the World Bank and the Ethiopian.
The expansion project will increase the treatment plant’s capacity to 100,000 metre cube a day from the current 7,500.
The authority is evaluating the tender floated two weeks ago, to select the contractor fr the expansion project, according to Jemal Nuredin, technical expert at the sewerage department of the Authority.
The design of the sewerage treatment plant expansion project was carried out by a Canadian company.
The construction of the project includes construction of 30km long drainage lines and 320km of tributary lines to collect sewerage from different parts of the city.
The expansion project which is scheduled to to be completed within two years is expected to significantly increase the sewerage disposal capacity of Addis Abeba city.
Source: Fortune
News blurps from ENA: http://www.ena.gov.et/Default.aspx?Lang=0
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