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An Indian delegation led by Harjit Singh Anand
(PhD), vice minister of Housing and Urban Poverty
Alleviation (MoHUPA), was busy last week lobbying
Ethiopian authorities at the Ministry of Works and
Urban Development (MoWUD) to use Indian low cost
housing technologies. The delegation met Kassu
Yilala (PhD) and Arkebe Oqubay, minister and state
minister of MoWUD, respectively on April 16.
A two day exhibition and seminar was held at the
Ethiopian Conference Centre organized by the Embassy
of India in collaboration with MoWUD and the MoHUPA.
The exhibition showcased the commercial viability of
manufacturing technologies of composite building
material and machinery developed in India. These
technologies can be used for the production of
building materials and components for housing with
the use of agro-industrial waste and natural fibers.
A nationwide housing construction project, launched
in 2007, currently uses Chinese low cost technology.
In addition to the ministers, the exhibition was
attended by Tsedale Mammo, head of the Addis Abeba
Housing Development Agency and has been rated a
success.
Minister Kassu told Fortune that there would
be the probability of the ministry working with the
Indians in a bid to transfer inexpensive
technologies from India to Ethiopia.
The MoWUD last year launched the construction of
400,000 houses in 70 towns in its five year housing
programme that is projected to cost 24 billion Br.
To support this programme, the ministry has
introduced an agro-stone technology from China. The
agro stone production factory, located in the Akaki
Kality District on a 20,000sqm plot was constructed
by the Chinese Xinghe Building Materials Ltd, which
provided the technology at a total cost of 16
million Br. This factory is now under expansion in a
bid to produce prefabricated building parts and has
established the Prefabricated Building Parts
Production Enterprise (PBPPE).
Moreover, the government has decided to bring in
1,000 Chinese experts to assist it with its housing
projects. It also has bought 2,200 semi-trailers,
dump trucks, loaders and crushers from the Chinese
CGC Overseas and XIAMEN XIA GONG Trading Co. Ltd.
The first 300 of these heavy trucks are expected to
arrive in Addis Abeba this afternoon from the port
of Djibouti.
According to an economist, the two thriving
economies are striving for dominance in Ethiopia as
is seen in other African countries.
In the symposium that hosted 200 participants,
Arkebe asserted the need for cost efficient and high
quality housing units for the low and middle income
population of Ethiopia. |
