Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed together with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, and senior government officials on Sunday (January 27) officially inaugurated the Ethiopian Airlines’ (Ethiopian) state-of-the-art Addis Ababa Bole International Airport Terminal Expansion and the airlines’ 5-star Skylight Hotel, the largest in Ethiopia. The new terminal, funded and built by China for $363 million, triples the airport’s size, and raises the airline’s passenger handling capacity to 22 million passengers a year from its current 7 million. It includes the latest technology security systems, self-check-in machines, self-boarding system, lounges, duty-free shops and other amenities as well…
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The President of Germany, Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, arrived in Ethiopia for a four-day working visit at the weekend. During his visit; President Steinmeier held talks with President Sahle-Work Zewde on bilateral, regional and international matters and paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed as well as meeting civil society and business representatives. The President visited a vocational training center in Addis Ababa, and the Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela, a UNESCO World Heritage site on Tuesday (January 29). President Sahle-Work hosted a state banquet in honour of President Steinmeier at the National Palace on Monday, attended by members…
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Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed arrived in Rome on Sunday (January 20) for an official visit at the invitation of Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. The two Prime Ministers held a press conference after their talks which Dr. Abiy described as productive. He said: “The comprehensive discussion which I had with Giuseppe Conte was important to take the bilateral relationship between the two nations to the next level.” He called enhanced cooperation between Ethiopia and Italy in the areas of development, peace, and tourism, and said Italy had agreed to finance the first stage of a feasibility study for a…
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The World Economy Forum in Davos opened on Tuesday (January 22), and this year’s theme was “Globalization 4.0: Shaping a New Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” The Forum comes at a time when the IMF believes the “cyclical forces that propelled growth may be weakening faster than we thought.” The IMF has cut its forecasts for global growth. The world economy is now expected to grow 3.5% in 2019 and 3.6% in 2020. In other words, it is expecting rising risks and slowing growth, and calls on policy-makers to resolve trade disagreements cooperatively and quickly. Founder…
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The World Economy Forum in Davos opened on Tuesday (January 22), and this year’s theme was “Globalization 4.0: Shaping a New Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” The Forum comes at a time when the IMF believes the “cyclical forces that propelled growth may be weakening faster than we thought.” The IMF has cut its forecasts for global growth. The world economy is now expected to grow 3.5% in 2019 and 3.6% in 2020. In other words, it is expecting rising risks and slowing growth, and calls on policy-makers to resolve trade disagreements cooperatively and quickly. Founder…
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The AU and EU held the first of a series of annual joint ministerial meetings in Brussels this week (January 21-22). The meeting brought together Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the European Union and the African Union. It was co-chaired by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Ms. Federica Mogherini, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Rwanda and Chair of the African Union Executive Council, Richard Sezibera. EU and AU Commissioners also attended. The Ethiopian delegation was led by State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Hirut Zemene. This was…
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The third round of IGAD-EU consultations took place on the margins of the AU- EU ministerial meeting on Tuesday (January 22). The meeting was chaired by Ethiopia’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Hirut Zemene and Ms. Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security. The two sides welcomed the “historic developments in the Horn of Africa with the normalization of relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia, the tripartite agreement between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, as well as the engagement of Eritrea and Djibouti and Eritrea and Sudan towards normalization of relations”. This offered major new openings for…
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Ethiopia’s House of People’s Representatives adopted significant revisions in the existing refugee law on Thursday last week (17 January), giving the country what UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, described as “one of the most progressive refugee policies in Africa”. The new law allows refugees to obtain work permits, access education and health services, obtain drivers’ licenses, legally register life events such as births and marriages and opens up access to national financial services, such as banking. The passing of the law came only a few weeks after the UN General Assembly agreed to the Global Compact on Refugees…
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This month the Ethiopian Embassy in Beijing organized an “Ethiopia – China Pulses, Oilseeds and Spices Sellers-Buyers Matchmaking Seminar” on January 11 and a few days later in Hohhot, capital of the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, an investment forum promoting opportunities in agriculture and livestock processing in Ethiopia. The seminar in Beijing was planned in collaboration with China’s Chamber of Commerce of Import and Export of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal By-Products (CFNA). 10 major exporting companies from Ethiopia, led by Anteneh Zegeye, Chairman of the Ethiopian Pulses, Oilseeds and Spices Processors and Exporters Association (EPOSPEA), participated. Ato Anteneh…