Ethiopia's Economy to Continue Growing at 10.2 Percent

Transcription

1 THE EMBASSY OF THE FEDERAL DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ETHIOPIA TO INDONESIA Fortnightly Newsletter 05 OCTOBER 2016 Ethiopia's Economy to Continue Growing at 10.2 Percent (p. 3) Updates from the Embassy Feature Topics ISSUE # 06 Chinese-built railway helps with Ethiopia's industrialization The 4th International Addis Agrofood Exhibition to be held in December University of Gondar and Unika Atma Jaya: Potential future twin universities

2 News from the Embassy ISSUE No. 06 Table of Content Premier expresses condolences over loss of lives at Irrecha celebration...3 Ethiopia's economy to continue growing at 10.2 percent...4 Chinese-built railway helps with Ethiopia's industrialization...5 The 4 th International Addis Agrofood Exhibition to be held in December...7 University of Gondar and Unika Atma Jaya: Potential future twin universities...8 All the right seasons in the fascinating Land of Origins...9 Page 2

3 Premier expresses condolences over loss of lives at Irrecha celebration He also wished families and relatives of the victims as well as the people of Ethiopia consolation. The incident shouldn t have been occurred at a festival which promotes love and tolerance, he said, calling on the Oromo and Ethiopian people to join hand with the government and denounce this evil act. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has expressed his deepest condolences over the loss of lives occurred at the annual Irrecha (thanksgiving) celebration yesterday. He said the festival, which has a special place in the Oromo people, was peaceful early in the morning and people were heading to Bishoftu Hora Lake, where the festival will take place. The Oromo Aba Gadas have been making preparations to colorfully mark the festival that promotes peace and tolerance. Moreover, works have been done to get the celebration registered by UNESCO, he said. However, violent forces tried to turn the situation into chaos while the Aba Gadas were trying to lead the festival, the Prime Minister said. Accordingly, 52 people have died falling from cliff around the lake where the celebration has started. Almost equal number of people injured in the incident, he said. "The situation is tragic," he said, further expressing his condolences on behalf of the government and himself. He said the government will bring those responsible for the loss of lives to Justice. The Premier also lauded the efforts of security force for their efforts to maintain order. The Premier finally urged the people to support government s ongoing peace and reform activities. (fanabc.com) The Government of Ethiopia has declared three-day mourning over the death of Irrecha incident During the mourning period, flags will lower to half-mast all over the country and at the Ethiopian embassies and consular offices around the world. HE Ambassador Arega Hailu Teffera also held a flag-lowering ceremony at the Embassy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in Jakarta on October 3, Page 3

4 Ethiopia's economy to continue growing at 10.2 percent Industrial parks, prioritized to ease bottlenecks to structural transformation, which will still have to take shape with industry playing a significant role in the economy. Ethiopia s economy is expected to continue growing at 10.2 percent in 2014/15 while public investment eases infrastructure bottlenecks and bolster economic structural transformation, African Economic Outlook 2016 said. The African Economic Outlook 2016 Report was launched at Sheraton Hotel on September 29, According to the report, Ethiopia has experienced double-digit economic growth, averaging 10.8 percent since 2005, which has mainly been underpinned by public-sector-led development. The agriculture, services and industry sectors accounted for 38.8 percent, 46.6 percent and 15.2 percent of real GDP, respectively, it was indicated. Public investments are expected to continue driving growth in the short and medium terms with huge investments in infrastructure and the development of The report revealed that the fiscal policy has remained prudent, focused mainly on increasing spending on pro-poor and growth-enhancing sectors, and on boosting efforts in tax-revenue collection. The monetary-policy stance has been geared to ensure a stable exchange rate and singledigit inflation targets. Despite this, inflation has tended to rise from single digits and reached 10.1 percent in December 2015, it added. Although Ethiopia has been pursuing a sound debt-management policy, debt burden indicators signaled a rise in debt distress from low to moderate in 2015, as indicated by the World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) debt-sustainability analysis. Moreover, poor performance and volatility in export earnings, and ever-increasing demand for imports have led to a deterioration of the balance of trade deficit. In 2015, Ethiopia faced one of the worst droughts in 30 years caused by the El Niño climate conditions, leading to failed harvests and shortages of livestock forage. Since 2004/05, the government has focused more on developing housing, upgrading slums, providing infrastructure and promoting small urban enterprises. (ena.gov.et) Page 4

5 Chinese-built railway helps with Ethiopia's industrialization A Chinese-built railway linking the Ethiopian capital and the port of Djibouti is expected to help the landlocked African country improve access to the sea and speed up a burgeoning industrialization process. The railway, which is set to become fully operational on October 5, will be Africa's first modern electrified railway. The full length of the railway is kilometers, with a designed speed of 120 km per hour. With a total investment of 4 billion U.S. dollars, it is being constructed by the China Railway Group and the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation. "The railway is constructed on the basis of Chinese railway technology standards while taking into account the national conditions of Ethiopia and Djibouti," said Zeng Deli, a project manager of the China Railway Group. It was designed and constructed in a most economical way, taking only six years for its final completion, which should be viewed as some kind of miracle even in China, Zeng said. For the Chinese contractors, the construction of a railway with a designed speed of 120 km per hour is not difficult. But it takes nothing short of a great feat to complete it with no compromise on quality and timeliness when there are inadequate construction materials and technical staff in Ethiopia. With careful planning and patient coordination, the Chinese firms managed to make sure construction materials imported from abroad arrived on time. To ensure good quality and no delay in construction, they even took the pains to manufacture the materials themselves, despite their higher cost. Page 5

6 Chinese-built railway... (cont.) For the Chinese firms, a lack of local technical personnel with adequate railway technology knowledge is a more serious problem. For example, it took 20,000 workers to complete a specific section of the railway, and it would be impossible to have the posts filled all by Chinese, said Fu Xun, another project manager with the China Railway Group. To tackle the challenge, the Chinese firms made the training of local technical workers a daily routine of their operations in Ethiopia. For the past few years, more than 15,000 local workers went through various training programs, thus ensuring enough manpower for railway construction and a talent reserve for future management of railway operations. To protect its precious wildlife resources along the railway, the Ethiopian government set a high environmental protection protocol. To meet these high ecological standards, the Chinese companies did their best not to alter the original landscape along the railway. They also spent more than 4 million U.S. dollars to build overpasses specially designed for safe animal crossover. The modern standard-gauge Addis Ababa- Djibouti railway runs parallel to a decrepit meter-gauge version built over 100 years ago by Europeans. Over 90 percent of Ethiopia's imports and exports, in particular energy and food are made via the sea port of Djibouti. The capacity of the current road system has long been overwhelmed. When the new railway becomes operational, transport time from Djibouti to the Ethiopian capital will be reduced. Besides faster transport, the Chinese firms have an even greater ambition. That is, the railway will serve as a catalyst for Ethiopia's national economic development. They put forward industrial planning recommendations to the Ethiopian government, including the establishment of industrial parks in key cities, so that better transport benefits will be ensured in the middle and long run. The Ethiopian government endorsed the suggestions and put the railway into a key project category of its five-year national development plan. Industrial parks will be established in regional hub cities along the railway. With improved transportation, the country will gradually transform an industrial model of exporting basic materials into one that focuses on deep processing. As a result, the country's industrialization level will be elevated. The Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway is only one of many major projects currently under way in the framework of China-Africa cooperation. Following the successful Johannesburg summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in December last year, China has been deepening and expanding the scope of its industrial capacity cooperation with Africa. More and more exemplary projects like the new Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway are set to prop up across the African continent and further help drive forward the modernization process in an unprecedented manner. (ebc.et) Page 6

7 The 4 th International Addis Agrofood Exhibition to be held in December The 4th International Addis Agrofood Agriculture, Agricultural Machinery, Food, Food Technologies and Packaging Exhibition is one of the fastest growing agro-food events in Ethiopia. The event will take place at the Addis Ababa Exhibition Center, Addis Ababa, from 2-5 December Organised by Ladin International Fair Organizations, which was founded in 1993 and has conducted many successful international exhibitions in various countries worldwide, Addis Agro food offers the exporter companies a chance to increase their sales and presence in Ethiopia. 50 companies from Turkey, Ethiopia, China, Italy, Germany, Spain, Kenya, UAE, Lebanon and Jordan participated in the third edition of Addis Agro food. The exhibition was visited by nearly 2,300 unique visitors. The product groups in the exhibition included silos (grain storage facilities,) seed cleaning, processing and conditioning equipment, agricultural machinery, water treatment and irrigation technologies, food processing and packaging machinery and equipment, poultry equipment, milking systems, feed machinery, animal nutrition and veterinary products, food and beverages. Ethiopia's economy is mainly based on agriculture and the country imports almost all food and agricultural machinery. Ethiopia is the first at livestock breeding sector in Africa, and it also is one of the first ten countries in the world. According to the Economist, Ethiopia has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The country has also recorded an impressive growth' during the past few years, according to a recent IMF review. Ethiopia is the second most populated country in Africa. Ethiopian government reduced customs tariff significantly in the framework of creating economic liberalization. The maximum tariff came down from 230% to 35% and the minimum is 5%. The average tariff is reduced from 41.6% to 17.5%. Ethiopia also has several agreements that grant duty-free access to many countries, including European countries and the USA. Business friendly climate, duty-free access, and competitive labour costs have successfully created new investments and employment opportunities. Ethiopia is also a member of COMESA which has an access to the markets of 20 African countries. (ebc.et) Page 7

8 News from the Embassy ISSUE No. 06 University of Gondar and Unika Atma Jaya: Potential future twin universities On 21 September 2016, HE. Mr. Arega Hailu Teffera, the Ambassador of The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia for Indonesia, visited The Catholic University of Atmajaya (Unika Atmajaya) in Jakarta. He was bringing a proposal from the University of Gondar in Ethiopia to be the partner of the Catholic University of Atmajaya Jakarta. In this friendly visit, some issues were discussed between the Catholic University of Atmajaya Jakarta and the Ambassador on behalf of the University of Gondar, such as the potential opportunity of twinning both universities in the form of several types of collaboration, including implementation of exchange of materials in education and research, publication and academic information, joint research, exchange of faculty and research scholars. This partnership would serve as a valuable resource for both institutions in order to build or expand linkages with higher education institutions in other countries. HE. Mr. Arega Hailu Teffera, on behalf of the goverment of FDR Ethiopia and University of Gondar, gave full support to this great collaboration and partnership. Furthermore, the Ambassador submitted a Letter of Intent and some documents of the University of Gondar to the President of the Catholic University of Atmajaya Jakarta, Dr. Agustinus Prasetyantoko. The latter, together with Mrs. Valerie Selvie Sinaga, SH., LLM., PhD, the Head of International Office, welcomed the discussion and wished that this opportunity would create mutual cooperation and relationship between Unika Atmajaya and the University of Gondar. Both parties agreed to bring this idea to the next level of MoU to be processed further. The University of Atmajaya submited a draft of MoU to be studied and reviewed by the University of Gondar. Both parties hope they would meet again and have a further on the matter, soon. At the end of the meeting, the Ethiopian Ambassador presented Ethiopian Coffee to the President of Atmajaya, who, in return, presented a University placcard to the Embassy. (Wayan Widiarsa) Page 8

9 News from the Embassy ISSUE No. 06 All the right seasons in the fascinating Land of Origins Ethiopia can be visited at any time of year, but different seasons have different advantages. Conventional wisdom is that visitors should avoid the rainy season, which usually starts in June, but peaks over July and August in the central and northern highlands. Certainly, highland towns such as Gondar, Lalibela and Addis Ababa can be very damp and cool during the rains. That aside, however, recent improvements in the northern circuit s road network makes the rains far less of an obstacle to travel than would have been the case few years ago. The countryside is also very green and scenic during the rains, and you ll encounter fewer tourists at popular sites such as Lalibela. The late rainy season, from September through to early October, is a lovely time of year. There s a significant drop in precipitation over this period, but the countryside is very green, and punctuated by yellow meskel wild flowers. On 27 September (a day later in leap years), Ethiopia erupts into festival mode to celebrate Meskel, which commemorates the finding of the True Cross more than 1600 years ago. Arguably the optimum time to visit Ethiopia is from mid October to January, when the rains are over but the countryside is still quite green. This is also the peak tourist season, so facilities and sites of interest tend to be busier than at other times. It is well worth aiming to be in Lalibela or Gondar for Timkat (Ethiopian Epiphany), another wonderfully colourful celebration held on 19 January (except on leap years). The late dry season, from February to May, is also a good time to visit, though the scenery tends to become dryer and browner towards the end of this period, except in the far south where the first rains often fall as early as April. Wildlife can be observed throughout the year, but the European winter --November to March-- is particularly rewarding for birders, as resident species are supplemented by large numbers of Palaearctic migrants. Mark your calendar The Great Ethiopian Run The 16th edition of the Great Ethiopian Run International 10km is set to take place on Sunday 20 November The race has become the biggest road race in Africa. Page 9