Hailemariam Desalegn,
social affairs advisor to the Prime Minister with a ministerial portfolio, has
been appointed as the Board Chairman of the Privatisation and Public Enterprises
Supervisory Agency (PPESA) following the resignation of Mekonnen Manyazewal,
state minister of Finance and Economic Development, who held the post for the
past five years.
Lease
Process Debate Underway for Capital's Hotel Expansion
Project
The Lease Board of the
Addis Abeba City Caretaker Administration this week will decide whether the 50
plots designated for the construction of hotel complexes should be leased to
investors through bid or negotiation. The Board is expected to discuss the
criteria with which investors will be granted the plots and set a pace they
should be putting on the work evaluating their capacities.
The Prime Minister's Office
ordered the City Administration to prepare plots suitable for the construction
of 50 hotels and the latter has discerned the plots.
When it became obvious for Jimma, located 347km
southwest of Addis Abeba, to host one of the biggest
music concerts taking place in the country on
September 12, 2007, in honour of the new Millennium,
many residents of the town went cheering late into
the night of New Year’s Eve.
Ethiopian celebrity singer, Tewodros Kassahun a.k.a
Tedi Afro was in the company of other local singers
such as Getachew Hailemariam, an Oromiffa singer and
Tigist Woyiso, popularly known for her song
Kochegn. Comedians Dereje Haile and Tilahun
Elfineh as well as members of Circus Jimma
entertained their audience in Jimma.
Writing
from Darfur, Sudan, Abdul sees Ethiopia as a beautiful lady,
very old but ever youthful. Nevertheless, in this commentary
- the first part of a series of four - Abdul recounts not
only the historical glories of Ethiopia but also its
limitations of the past and challenges ahead in the Third
Millennium.
Only a few days from the countdown of the Second Ethiopian
Millennium to come to an end, Fortune has solicited the views
and messages of prominent personalities representing different
constituencies and roles in Ethiopian society, including Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi and Addis Abeba’s Mayor Brehane Deressa. In
their respective essays exclusively published here, the majority of
them recounted Ethiopia’s glorious past; recognised its seal to
remain the bastion of independence in the face of adversities;
disconcerted due to its recent history of poverty and civil
conflicts; and preached tolerance, understanding and social harmony
in the coming Millennium. Fortune is delighted to present in
this edition the outlooks and visions of these distinguished
personalities.
Molla Ayalew, 58, lives with 12 members of his
family in a rented house in the Kirkos District. The
lone breadwinner for his family, he nurtured nine of
his offspring feeding them unprocessed milk ..Read More
Once a
glorious mode of transportation connecting Ethiopia’s
interior to present-day Djibouti and its ocean outlet, the
railway linking the two countries’ capitals is in a
dilapidated state. Read More
VERBATIM
"Democracy will flourish neither with gun-power nor with
financial profligacy on the part of the government."
Beyene
Petros (Prof.), MP-UEDF, told Sendek, a private weekly Amharic,
that the government has a tendency toward lavish spending to buy
popularity among the youth by way of diverting resources secured
from the World Bank but meant for the safety net programme.
One aspect of
the Millennium hype that has turned out to be mere rhetoric in this
writer's view has been the character of investment facilitation for
Ethiopians returning from abroad. While the recent gestures .....
