Business
Information is a critical necessity in the efficient running of any business or in making decisions on how and where to invest. However, necessary and timely information as well as analyses of business trends is usually hard to come by in Ethiopia. This has lead Precise Consult International (PCI), a management consulting firm operating in the United States and Ethiopia, to publish the first of its type report on Ethiopian economy to be by compiled by a private company.
The five-year strategic plan, dubbed the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP), was defended by both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance and Economic Development during the past two weeks. Early this week, the plan was floated for public discussion in Addis Ababa where people still held mixed opinions on the feasibility of the plan. Abera Alemayehu, 29, currently employed at a private bank, calls the 'transformation' a 'bluff.' He says that the plan, as it is presented in the various media outlets, in one’s right judgment, looks over-ambitious. “This time the architects have pushed it too far and it sounds like a strategy in a poker game, thought I am not sure who we are playing against,” he says jokingly.
It is very rare now in Uganda to see an Italian made vehicle traversing the roads unless it is a new model but not those Fiat cars that were mostly used by thieves and smugglers during Idi Amin's regime in the 1970's.
By Kaleyesus Bekele
The Malaysian oil company, Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), which is prospecting for oil and gas reserves in the Ogaden basin, south eastern part of Ethiopia, is demobilizing its drilling crew. Following the announcement of Petronas to cut back on overseas exploration projects, there is prevalent speculation that the company will pull out from Ethiopia. Previously, Petronas relinquished its concession in the Gambella basin, south-western part of Ethiopia, near the Sudanese border, after drilling two exploration wells that turned out dry. Another exploration well drilled by the company last year in the Ogaden basin in the Genale locality also turned out to be dry.
Sal Joil Saudi-American Investment Plc, a company owned by a Saudi and US investors, has launched what will become the first private eco tourism project in the country to be built on a 133.8ha island on Lake Beseka, in the environs of the town of Metehara 197km east of Addis Ababa, it was learnt.
The construction of the Gilgel Gibe III dam on the Omo river in Ethiopia has been condemned by conservationists and indigenous rights campaigners as a white elephant, a monument to government myopia, incompetence and greed.
The purpose of establishing the GATT, which later became the WTO, was to facilitate international trade between countries. It focused mainly on trade in industrial products.
The completion of the Tekeze hydro-power project in Ethiopia ushers in a new source of renewable energy, educational opportunities and economic development for the people of Ethiopia
Op-Ed By IPS Correspondent.
The Gilgel Gibe III dam will hold back 14.7 million cubic metres of water. Its 1,870 MW generating capacity will be a significant boost for the Ethiopian Electric Power Company (EEPCO) which has plans to extend electricity supply within the country and export power to other countries in East Africa. A 1.7 billion dollar contract to build the dam has been awarded to Italian multinational Salini Costruttori SPA. But the project's critics have assembled a damning dossier of problems with it.
VOA 13pm GMT
IslamOnline
