Thursday, June 8, 2017

Landlocked Ethiopia Eyes Role in DP World-Managed Somali Port

Ethiopia is in talks to acquire shares in a joint venture involving DP World Ltd. that will manage a port in northern Somalia, a Somali official said, a move that could give the fast-growing yet landlocked Horn of Africa economy its first stake in foreign docks.
Somaliland, a semi-autonomous territory that aspires to statehood, has agreed “in principle” to give Ethiopia a 19 percent share in the venture administering Berbera port, according to Foreign Minister Saad Ali Shire. Somaliland’s government and Dubai-based DP World, which has a 30-year concession to manage and develop the facility, will be the majority shareholders in Somaliland-registered DPW Berbera, he said in an interview.
If Ethiopia takes its share, Somaliland will hold 30 percent of the company, while DP World will have 51 percent, according to Shire. Berbera sits on the Gulf of Aden, a waterway that leads to the Red Sea and Suez Canal, and is also where Somaliland says the United Arab Emirates is leasing a military airport that may be expanded into a naval facility.
Ethiopia , Africa’s second-most populous nation, is pitching itself as an export-oriented manufacturing hub, with the International Monetary Fund forecasting economic growth of 7.5 percent this year, the fastest pace on the continent after Ivory Coast. Ethiopia’s transport and information ministers and Foreign Ministry spokesman didn’t respond to phone calls and text messages seeking comment on the Berbera share offer.
Shire said the venture is presently 65 percent owned by DP World, with Somaliland holding the rest, and nothing legally binding has yet been agreed with Ethiopia. DP World, which operates 78 terminals in 40 countries, announced it would hold 65 percent in venture in September. It won’t comment on the share structure “for the time being,” spokesman Michael Vertigans said by email.

Transit Hub

Shire said the Berbera facility will have a container terminal and be mainly used for container traffic as a transit hub for landlocked nations, particularly Ethiopia. Currently more than 90 percent of Ethiopia’s trade passes through another Red Sea neighbor, Djibouti, according to that country’s ports authority.
A new $4.2-billion, Chinese-built railway between Ethiopia and Djibouti is set to cut cargo-journey times to 12 hours, from three days by road. DP World has a 50-year concession to operate a container terminal in Djibouti, which the government unsuccessfully sought the rescission of at a London arbitration court, Dubai said in February. Somaliland is planning a 260-kilometer (162-mile) road from Berbera port to the Ethiopian border, according to Shire.
“A shareholding doesn’t necessarily mean recognition of Somaliland as a state,” said Mogus Tekle Michael, deputy director of the Ethiopian Foreign Relations Strategic Studies Institute and a former Foreign Ministry spokesman. Ethiopia would be “more than willing to grab any opportunity” to play a role in developing any port in the region, including Berbera, he said.
The planned U.A.E. military base in the Berbera area will “add value on the security side” to the use of Berbera port, Shire said. The use of Berbera, Somaliland’s only major harbor, to import materials for the construction of the U.A.E. facility is “just common sense,” he said. The U.A.E. hasn’t publicly commented on any of the plans for a base detailed by Shire.
DP World isn’t involved “in any way” with the base, “which is a matter for both governments,” Vertigans said. Read more here

Internet, social media back in Ethiopia after block

Ethiopia shut down internet access even to diplomatic installations last week in a move the government said was necessary to keep students from being distracted during annual exams
Ethiopia shut down internet access even to diplomatic installations last week in a move the government said was necessary to keep students from being distracted during annual exams
Ethiopia re-activated cellphone data services and unexpectedly allowed access to social media sites that had been blocked since a wave of anti-government protests last year, a government spokesman told AFP on Thursday.
Africa's second most-populous country shut down internet access even to diplomatic installations last week in a move the government said was necessary to keep students from being distracted during annual exams.
Deputy communications minister Zadig Abraha confirmed the lifting of the ban but declined to say why social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, which have been blocked for months, are now freely accessible.
"This is an open country and everything is open," Zadig said.
Ethiopia had restored broadband internet access over the weekend and allowed the African Union headquarters and the UN's Economic Commission for Africa to get back online shortly after the initial shutdown last week.
Mobile phone data networks -- which the majority of businesses and people rely on to get online -- only returned around noon on Thursday, an AFP journalist witnessed.
Social media was also accessible, unlike before the shutdown.
Ethiopia last year restricted access to Facebook, Twitter and other sites after the country was rocked by anti-government protests that left hundreds dead and resulted in more than 11,000 arrests.
The government has blamed dissidents for inciting the protests via social media postings.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Ethiopian Airlines launches direct services to Singapore


Ethiopian Airlines has marked the commencement of five weekly direct and non- stop services to Singapore at a reception ceremony held at Addis Ababa Bole Airport.

A statement issued in Accra by the Airline said the event had been graced by Mr Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO Ethiopian Airlines, members of Transport Affairs Standing Committee from the House of People's Representatives, aviation partner organisations, travel agencies, Ethiopian Executive Management and other invited guests.

Mr Tewolde said Singapore was one of the world’s biggest economic giants, among the Asian Tigers: a global financial Centre, highly developed, innovative, and business-friendly and a preferred gateway to Asia and Australia.
He noted that Ethiopian flight to Singapore would have a paramount importance in enhancing economic, cultural, and social ties between Asia and Africa, and the two countries in particular. Read more here

7.8 mln people need food aid in Ethiopia: official

ADDIS ABABA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- 7.8 million people in Ethiopia need food assistance due to a prolonged drought worsened by the El-Nino weather condition, said a government minister on Wednesday.
Ethiopian communications minister Negeri Lencho said in a statement that the government has set aside 50 million U.S. dollars for drought relief.
In the beginning of the year, the Ethiopian government had put the number of people in need of food aid in the country at 5.6 million but later revised it to 7.2 million.
"The Ethiopian government had anticipated the drought, and as such is providing water and food to people, school feeding program to school students and animal feed to livestock," says Lencho.
While praising the response from international donors, he admitted that other international crises are having some impact on the amount of aid the Ethiopian government is receiving for drought relief.
"Ethiopian economic growth has meant that we have better internal resources to cope with the drought, though if the crisis aggravates we will increase the amount of food supplies and monetary assistance," said Lencho. Read more here

Ethiopian immigrants arrive in Israel for first time in 7 months

JERUSALEM (JTA) — More than 70 new Ethiopian immigrants landed in Israel Tuesday, the first to arrive in more than seven months.
The 72 immigrants identified as Falash Mura, or Ethiopians who claim Jewish heritage, landed on Tuesday as part of a joint operation between the Jewish Agency and the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. They were greeted at Ben Gurion International Airport by family members, many who had not seen each other in more than a decade, according to reports.
Two more aliyah flights from Ethiopia are scheduled for June, the Times of Israel reported.
Some 9,000 Ethiopian Falash Mura remain in the country awaiting immigration to Israel.
In 2013, Israel’s Interior Ministry approved the immigration of the remaining Falash Mura, and the Knesset in November 2015 unanimously approved a plan to bring some of them over following a public campaign launched by the nation’s Ethiopian community and volunteer organizations. But the plan did not deal with the finances, which include the long-term costs of acclimating the immigrants.
An agreement to find money in the budget for the aliyah of the Falash Mura was signed in April 2016. Some 100 immigrants were supposed to arrive in Israel each month after that, but the process has been more protracted.
The Falash Mura claim links to descendants of Jews who converted to Christianity generations ago but now seek to return to Judaism. The Interior Ministry accepts them as immigrants under the Law of Return, which is less restrictive than traditional Jewish law.
About 135,000 Jews of Ethiopian descent are living in Israel. Some 22,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel during Operation Moses in 1984 and Operation Solomon in 1991. Read more here
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