Despite a long
questions and answers session in Parliament last Thursday (the first
one based on the Parliament's brand new Code of Conduct), the Prime
Minster felt compelled to call a impromptu press conference on
November 25, to clarify his position on the latest events in
Somalia. Thursday's talk of inflation, anti-corruption and solving
religious extremism all of a sudden seemed very far away.For
excerpts from saturday's press conference
Click Here
Meles Speaks Out On Inflation
For the past month, state media had been busy talking to economists,
political leaders, and even ordinary members of the society about
their reactions to the increasing rate of inflation, about which
there seems to be unanimous agreement among sellers and consumers,
as well as among opposition as well as ruling political leaders.
Click here
for the prime minister's Thursday comments on inflation.
PM’s Office to Rescue Drug Companies
The Office of
the Prime Minister ordered that recent moves to auction foreclosed
pharmaceutical companies to be stopped until the industry’s problems
were investigated.
As per the
instruction from the Prime Minister’s Office, a committee, headed by
a Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) representative, was formed
last week to study the problems faced by foreclosed companies as
well as by the entire pharmaceutical industry and to propose
solutions. Other committee members include the Ministry of Finance
and Economic Development (MoFED) as well as representatives of the
two banks involved.
The Development
Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) has introduced the fourth credit policy of its
98-year history.
The new policy,
which has 64 pages, was approved by the Board of Management, chaired by
Minister of Revenue, Melaku Fenta, in October; it has become operational
this month.
It prioritises
export, manufacturing industries and agro-processing sectors, and has
demoted coffee, oilseeds, pulses, and gums from their position of
traditional importance. Hides and skins have also been excluded from the
prioritised list of all manufacturing industry products.
The nation’s central bank,
National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), has ordered that all bank processes concerning
items being exported to China shall be undertaken and overseen by the Commercial
Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) only.
NBE, which has the
authority to regulate all financial institutions in the country, held a meeting
with state and private-owned banks and issued the new order, which stated that
the process of all exports going to China shall be handled by CBE alone and that
no other bank can take part in these transactions.
Amid concerns
that the company's current practices may break industry regulations,
Nib Insurance Company announced that it earned 3.4 million Br net
profit in 2005-2006, which is less than what it made the previous
year at 5.7 million Br.
But the company
did manage to increase its gross written premiums from 33 million Br
in 2004-2005 to 46 million Br this fiscal year, a 40pc rise.
Customs Lawyer
Cleared in One Case, Still Faces Another
The Federal High Court dropped one of the charges brought forward by
the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission against the former Legal
Department Head of the Ethiopian Customs Authority (ECA), Yohannes
WoldeGebriel, who was also once chief prosecutor at the same
Commission.
MALCO S.C.,
established by local liquor companies to mitigate problems of pure
alcohol shortage, is preparing to begin production in the end of the
2006/2007 budget year.
Located 73km
from Addis Abeba in Mojjo town, in the Oromia Regional State, the
company was established with a capital of eight million Birr.
Construction of the plant has already been completed on 7,000sqm of
land, and preparations are underway to import machinery from
England, according to a source.
Six people,
including members of the Ministry of National Defence (MoND) and the
Federal Police Commission, who were charged by the Ethics and
Anti-Corruption Commission for kidnapping and extortion, have been
sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment and 2,000Br each in penalty
fees.
Agency Wants 28m Br before Returning Adama
Factory
The Nazareth
Soap Factory, which was established by two businessmen in 1976, was
returned to its rightful owners 26 years after forced
nationalisation; but although the return was publicly announced in
September 2006, the proprietors have yet to receive the Factory.
The reason for
the delay is that the owners are expected to make a 28 million Br
payment before the hand-over is actualized. The money request is a
reimbursement for three machines that were installed at the Factory
during state ownership.
The House of
Peoples’ Representatives debated on November 23, 2006 a draft
proclamation calling for for the dissolution of the Ethiopian Social
Rehabilitation and Development Fund (ESRDF).
The Council of
Ministers drafted the proclamation after concluding that the purpose
of the Fund - undertaking emergency rehabilitation and development
projects as needs arose - was no longer there and that federal and
regional government bodies were already carrying out the works
previously undertaken by ESRDF, creating duplication of activities.
The Engineering
Capacity Building Program (ECBP), a government led collaboration
between Ethiopia and Germany, has chosen 12 private companies to
include in its first phase.
The program,
which is being undertaken by the Ministry of Capacity Building (MoCB)
and the German Technical Corporation (GTZ), started work in 2005.
The 174 million euro program is funded by both governments, with 94
million euros funded by the German Government and 80 million euros
funded by Ethiopia.
The Ambo
Mineral Water Factory has cancelled a call for joint venture
Expressions of Interest (EOI) and replaced it with another one. The
first time around, it received responses from three international
companies.
The sparkling
water bottler is located 130Km west of Addis Abeba in the Oromia
Regional State, five kilometres from Ambo town, and was established
over 70 years ago. It announced the EOI with its eye on a 147.3
million Br expansion and renovation plan.
The push to complete a national ICT master plan that would
eventually connect federal offices nationwide was stymied recently
when the Ethiopian Information and Communication Technology
Development Agency (EICTDA) suddenly cancelled a controversial
tender issued to find a consultancy firm to prepare it.
Representatives from five steel manufacturing factories complained
to Kassu Ilala, Minister of Works and Urban Development (MoWUD),
that the privilege given them to manufacture reinforcement bars for
the Ministry’s housing project has not been upheld by the Ministry
of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED).
Turkey's
long coveted ascendance to the European Union has once again met
resistance by its neighbours to the West. As the country reassesses its
options, Turkish businessmen are looking to the rest of the world. Its
predominantly Muslim neighbours to the East, of course, are becoming
logical partners, but other county's like Ethiopia are fast becoming
trading partners too.
Viewers of
Ethiopian Television have had a rare occasion of being exposed to
debate on an issue so dear to the individual consumer: what to make
of the double digit inflation.
With the
exception of the opinion of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Genetu
Teshome, those on the show televised on Wednesday and Thursday,
November 15 and 16, 2006, were far from reflecting the official
line.
Four years ago,
the Ethio-American Trade and Investment Council invited an Ethiopian
delegation led by then Minister of Trade and Industry, Kasahun Ayele,
currently Ambassador to Berlin, to visit four different American
states and explore Ethiopian cultural exhibition possibilities. On
the Houston leg of the visit, the team sat down in a Mexican
restaurant and began seriously envisioning a wide-ranging exhibit
that could attract millions of people, one that would include a
six-year loan of Lucy, Ethiopia’s beloved fossil. According to Dirk
Van Tuerenhout, PhD Curator of Anthropology at the Houston Museum of
Natural Science, Lucy will be the real star for his museum’s
visitors when the show opens just under a year from now. But are the
benefits worth the risks?
Tamrat G. Giorgis, FORTUNE STAFF WRITER, sat down with Dr.
Tuerenhout to find out.
