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The Addis Abeba Airport Customs Authority released
Yemeni products destined for the Exhibition Centre
on Friday after holding them for three days in its
warehouse.
The delegation of officials and 60 members of the
Yemeni business community led by Yahya Y. Al
Mutauake (PhD), Yemen’s minister of Industry and
Trade, was scheduled to display their products from
January 16 to 22. However, the products did not get
past customs until mid-day last Friday.
Lemma Gudissa, general manager of the Addis Abeba
Airport Custom’s Authority, told Fortune that
the problem occurred because the business delegates
failed to provide an insurance bond or cash to
guarantee the items used for display would leave the
country following the exhibition.
“It was against the law for us to release the items
from our warehouse unless they provided a
guarantee,” Lemma told Fortune.
Fortune
learnt that the delegation has provided the
guarantee on January 18, 2008, two days and half
after the exhibition was opened.
“They paid the required 65,000 Br guarantee Friday
morning,” Mamo Senbete, tariff and price affairs
head at the airport’s custom office, told Fortune.
The Exhibition Centre remained closed on Friday,
however. The day before, Fortune witnessed
the Centre almost empty. Few people visited on
January 17, 2008, the second day after the event was
officially inaugurated.
Jalal Almagtari, head coordinator of the Yemeni
delegates, told Fortune that he is dismayed
by what happened and is amazed by the Custom
Authority’s reluctance to cooperate with them even
after they provided the Authority a letter of
cooperation from the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MoFA).
“I have never encountered this kind of problem in
other countries,” Almagtari told Fortune. ”I
do not understand why we are asked more than 65,000
Br to provide a guarantee for empty cans, leaflets
and other small products destined only for display.”
Lemma claims the problem arose from the delegation
coordinating body’s communications problems.
“The Yemeni delegation did not even inform the
Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) about their
scheduled exhibition,” Lemma explained.
He further stated that it is only after the Ministry
wrote them a letter of cooperation considering the
very good relation between the two countries that
they allowed them to enter the products to the
country.
Mohammed Bashir, a local agent for a Yemeni company,
told Fortune that they were only displaying
items entered through luggage for three days.
“We never imagined that we would face such
problems,” Mohammed said.
According to another Yemeni businessman who was
waiting for his products to be released, he and many
others were planning to return immediately to their
country if the items were not cleared.
However, Abdallah A. Al Manakhi, public relations
director at the General Investment Authority of
Yemen, believes that all the current problems will
be solved and will in no way hamper the long
standing cultural, trade and political relations of
the two countries.
“We come here not only for business matters but also
to celebrate the Ethiopian Millennium with our
brothers and sisters,” Al Manakhi said.
Yahya Y. Al Mutauake, who returned back to Yemen on
January 18, 2008, underscores that the delegation he
led have established an Ethiopian-Yemeni Business
Council that is part of the 45 protocols signed
between the two countries so far.
“Furthermore, we will grant scholarships to
Ethiopian students to study in our country,” he
disclosed adding that he was pleased at the laying
of the cornerstone for the project to construct a
Yemeni Cultural Centre in Addis Abba.
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