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It was
after a long time that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi made
himself available to the media, especially the local one,
when about a month ago, the Government Communication Affairs
Office organized the first of the likely to become regular
press briefings by the chief ideologue of the Revolutionary
Democrats. Last Monday was his second session with the media
since the office under the leadership of Bereket Simon took
matters related to government communication into its own
hands. Below are questions raised by local and foreign
journalists at the April 13, 2009, press conference in the
PM’s Office and the responses the premier gave. The issues
raised range from the inflation at home to the global
economic crisis, as well as from the turmoil around coffee
and tax to Gilgel Gibe III project. |
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Sequel to Meles Unravels All |
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On Politics and Personal Future |
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Q. In its recent assembly, [the Executive Committee
of] the EPRDF announced that it will focus on the
manufacturing industry, especially on capacity
building. How do you rate the viability of this
choice for the country’s economy?
Yes, it is true that the Executive Committee had a
resent meeting focused on the manufacturing sector.
That is to be expected because the previous meeting
of the leadership council had focused on scaling-up
of agricultural productivity. Therefore, it was
about time that we tackled industry, having tackled
agriculture earlier on.
The manufacturing sector needs to be dealt with both
from the point of view of its capacity to generate
foreign exchange, and also to substitute imports.
Manufacturing has been growing robustly; but it is
our opinion that it could do better. What needs to
be done to make it perform better among other things
is to improve its production capacity. That was the
focus of our most recent meeting.
Q. At the EPRDF meeting last week, you discussed
preparations for the coming elections. Can you tell
us something about the outcomes of the discussions
and, in particular, if you raised the issue of your
own retirement and if so, what the party said?
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One of the points of discussions of the recent
meeting of the Executive Committee [of EPRDF] was
about the EPRDF’s election strategy for 2010. A
discussion [which had been prepared and discussed]
has to be submitted to the larger body, which will
be meeting sometime at the end of the summer. So the
Executive Committee discussed and improved upon the
strategy paper, and it will now circulate it among
the members of the larger leadership body so that
they can have a look at it and come up with
suggestions to improve it, and hopefully by August
or so, we will have a well articulated election
strategy.
The objective of that document is to develop a
strategy for free, fair, transparent and peaceful
elections. I suspect after the larger leadership
council endorses it, possibly with modifications,
much of it will be available to the public. But at
the moment, it is an internal discussion paper. A
smaller body has essentially approved it and now it
has to be submitted to as it were the final
authority.
The issue of my own retirement was not discussed in
this meeting. But it was discussed in the previous
meeting. It is an ongoing discussion, it has not
been finalized and if and when the party decides to
make public announcements on this matter, I suspect
it will make it; I won’t be the one who will be
making it.
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Q. There are rumours that you are lining up to be
Ethiopia’s next president with a similar line of
duties like the ones you currently have. Can you
answer that?
When I leave my current position one way or another,
I will leave lock stock in barrel; no ifs, no buts.
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