ETHIOPIA: Troops & more – 13th Jun 2024

Salaam salaam from BA! This is the Rorshok Ethiopia Update from the 13th of June twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Ethiopia.

Let’s kick this episode off with the feud between Ethiopia and Somalia. Ever since Ethiopia signed an agreement with Somaliland, an autonomous administrative unit that Somalia claims as its own, relations have been tense between the two neighboring countries. It’s been circulating in the media recently that Somalia is planning to kick out Ethiopian peacekeeping soldiers who are stationed in Somalia in accordance with the African Union (or AU) Transition Mission of Somalia and other bilateral agreements. On Friday the 7th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press conference that even though there are allegations, there’s nothing official. The Ministry added that the Ethiopian peacekeeping soldiers will only leave if the AU and the UN say so and that so far, Ethiopia hasn’t received any official request or information on this matter.

Since we mentioned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister Taye Atske-Selassie was in the Russian city of Nizhny-Novgorod this past Monday and Tuesday to attend the BRICS Foreign Ministers Summit. This is the first time Ethiopia has ever attended the Summit after joining the alliance. During the meeting, he said that Ethiopia greatly values the membership and is taking steps to fully integrate. On the sidelines, the Minister sat down with Foreign Ministers of member countries, including China, Russia, and South Africa. All of them expressed their willingness to strengthen bilateral relations.

In some economic news, on Tuesday the 11th The Ministry of Finance said to the House of People’s Representatives that the economy has grown by almost eight percent this year and is set to grow further in the next budget year by over eight percent. It also said that the government’s policies to increase the private sector’s engagement in the economy have stimulated growth. The Ministry added that the second round of the homegrown economic reform plan includes opening the banking sector to foreign companies and beginning the capital market operation.

Speaking of foreign companies, Ethiopia is looking for foreign investment. A delegation of investors from Saudi Arabia led by the country’s Chamber of Commerce Federation went to an investment forum this week in Addis. Mamo Mihretu, The governor of the National Bank, was also present and announced that the draft law allowing foreigners to engage in the finance sector will be presented to the Council of Ministers for a preliminary approval next week. Investors can engage in the finance sector either by opening a branch of their companies, establishing a subsidiary or directly investing as a new enterprise. Before the current government assumed power, the finance sector was reserved for locals. However, almost two years ago, the Council of Ministers revised this policy and decided to open the sector to foreign investors.

But let’s go back to the session with the House of People’s Representatives for a second, where the Minister of Finance broke down the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The Council of Ministers’ proposed budget will be the highest ever if approved. It will stand at almost one trillion birr or seventeen and a half billion US dollars, showing a sixteen percent increase compared to last year. The Minister of Finance said that the government will have a deficit of about three hundred and fifty million birr and will fill it by taking out foreign and domestic loans.

More about The House of People’s Representatives as it is deliberating an amendment to the civil servants law. The amended law has already been drafted, but the House hasn’t approved it yet. Members of The House are expressing concerns over the bill. They criticized the draft saying that the new law doesn’t help solve long-standing problems of civil servants and grants excessive powers to government officials. They also raised questions as to why minimum wage hasn’t been fixed and why there’s no slot for a worker representative in the soon to be established merit and wages board.

Moving on, The Environmental Protection Authority is worried about air pollution in Addis because unless it gets under control, over two thousand residents can die. Also, nine years from now, if no preventive measures are taken, the number will triple. The Authority expressed these concerns when it announced the Vehicle Pollution Control Directive, and blamed cars running on gas for the contamination, especially those that are outdated and are relatively more dangerous to the air quality. In addition to casualties, pollution is also costing money. The World Bank says that the contamination has cost the country almost four and a half billion birr or seventy-eight million US dollars.

Up next, The UN Population Fund released a report saying that Ethiopia’s population has reached almost a hundred and thirty million. The UN also said that this number is set to double in just twenty-eight years. Government representatives appreciated the UN’s findings saying that the report will be taken into consideration when the executive frames strategic plans. They said that this is the time to step up cooperation between the public and private sectors to fulfill social service demands.

Life expectancy has also risen. The UN said life expectancy has reached sixty-four years for men and seventy years for women.

In unrelated news, The Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority revealed that it has hit its coffee export target for May, raking in almost twelve billion birr or two hundred million US dollars in that month alone. To bring in this much revenue, the country had to export over forty thousand tons of coffee. The Authority said that this means the figures have surpassed expectations. The country is now on track to bring the highest annual revenue in coffee exports ever. The Authority’s Director General said that the record will possibly be improved by the end of the current budget year. Ethiopia is currently the fifth largest coffee producer and exporter in the world.

The Bole International Airport in Addis is set to have a technological apparatus installed allowing planes to land in tough weather conditions. As it stands, when the weather is so harsh that it can’t allow landing, planes are being forced to land in airports in cities near Addis which is costly and time-consuming. The Civil Aviation Authority is undertaking this project and the Ministry of Finance granted it permission to have costs covered by Ethiopian Airlines.

On that note about Ethiopian Airlines, it will resume flights to Tigray’s city Axum on Sunday the 9th after a three-year hiatus. Flights to Axum stopped because the airport was destroyed during the Northern war. A few months ago, Ethiopian Airlines announced that it would begin repairing and maintaining the airport, which reportedly cost almost three hundred million birr or five million US dollars.

And to wrap up this edition, some sports news. Ethiopia is participating in the Qualifiers tournament for the twenty twenty-six FIFA World Cup. The country sits second to last in the group after drawing with Djibouti in a match held in Morocco on Sunday the 9th. Ethiopia’s chances of clinching a spot at the World Cup Finals are growing slimmer as the team is seven points off the top. Recall that Ethiopia has never participated in a FIFA World Cup Finals tournament.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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