Ambasciata d Italia ad Addis Abeba SERVIZIO NEWS

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1 Ambasciata d Italia ad Addis Abeba SERVIZIO NEWS

2 INDEX ETHIOPIA Metropolitana di addis abeba in funzione dal Ethiopia Claims To Expand Zones Envisaging Industrial Hub... 4 Aalrt Project Well In Progress... 5 Ethiopia: Addis Ababa s Railway To Start Operation On January... 6 Mini To Midi, As City Announces Transport Changes... 7 Hawassa Airport Construction Tender Open As Designers Sign Off... 9 SOUTH SUDAN S.Sudan leaders told to talk as famine looms DJIBOUTI Rdd-Italie : Le Chef De La Diplomatie Djiboutienne salue le soutien de L italie A L IGAD AFRICA L East Africa punta All india Un Anno Di Record A Sud Del Sahara Per La Banca Mondiale EVENTS Concert For Cello And Piano - Ralph Lee, Brian Willson

3 ETHIOPIA METROPOLITANA DI ADDIS ABEBA IN FUNZIONE DAL 2015 ETIOPIA Il sistema di metropolitana leggera Addis Abeba sarà operativo a partire dal gennaio ( Notiziario Infoafrica) Lo ha annunciato il Direttore Generale della Ethiopian Railways Corporation, Getachew Betru, precisando che la realizzazione complessiva del progetto ha superato il 70% mentre opere civili, ponti e costruzioni sotterranee sono state terminate per oltre il 90%. Attualmente si sta lavorando alla realizzazione degli impianti di segnalazione elettrica avanzata, nonchè di stazioni di comunicazione e ferroviarie. Secondo il Direttore Generale, la grande sfida del progetto è stata affrontata dall amministrazione ferroviaria in maniera adeguata. Anche il direttore del Progetto per la metropolitana,behailu Sintayehu, ha espresso sosddisfazione sullo stato dei lavori, sottolineando che il lavoro civile è completato mentre sono in fase di completamento la saldatura dei binari e la costruzione di poli di generazione di potenza. Il transito ferroviario leggero di Addis Abeba coprirà più di 34 km con stazioni a una distanza media di 700 metri. I lavori per la metropolitano erano iniziati il 31 gennaio

4 ETHIOPIA CLAIMS TO EXPAND ZONES ENVISAGING INDUSTRIAL HUB In efforts to shift from farming and become a hub for textile and other industries Ethiopia will start setting up a new industrial park in the coming September and expand existing ones at a total cost of U.S $ 250 Million. ( WIC) According to Reuters Ethiopia is trying to lure investors that are being pushed by the cost that is rising from China and some other Asian markets. Labor is said to be cheap in Ethiopia and the country also has fast improving power supply, transport and other industries. In addition to these, it s economy has been growing by double digits during the past 10 years. According to the Deputy Director General of the Ethiopian Industrial Development Zones Corporation, Yaregal Meskir, plans to expand the Bole Lemi Industrial Zone is finalized and there is a new plan to construct another industrial hub at Kilinto. Yaregal noted there is a long queue for investors to get a sheds and land. He added the country is prefers for investors that will invest in labour-based industries such as garment manufacturing and shoe manufacturing for exports. The Deputy Director General said works on Bole Lemi phase two and the Kilinto Industrial Zone will commence as of September, after selecting a designer. The expansion work as well as the new site is said to be financed by a U.S $ 250 Million loan obtained from the World Bank, Yaregal said. Factories can get land from the industrial zones at a U.S $ 1 per a square meter for six months, enjoy tax holiday that will last up to seven years and customs along with other services on site. Taddese Haile, State Minister for Industry, said "Ethiopia has developed a strategy that gives priority to certain industries". He furthered, "The aim is to see Ethiopia as a globally-known cluster for textiles and garment products". According to the Reuters Ethiopia s strong growth is enhancing projects such as hydro-electric dams and other power projects to offer cheap electricity and a growing network of roads and railways. The government also allows private investment with regard to industrial zones. One such enterprise is the Eastern Industrial Zone, whose shareholders included China's Jiangsu Qiyuan Group. 4

5 AALRT PROJECT WELL IN PROGRESS The construction of the Addis Ababa Light Rail Transit Project is well in progress as per the contract schedule and budget. ( WIC) Currently, the project has reached more than 70 percent including overall design, procurement and construction plan. China Railways Engineering Group (CREC) is undertaking the construction in line with the specification and standard set in the agreement. According to ERTA, the construction is expected to be completed in the next Ethiopian fiscal year. 5

6 ETHIOPIA: ADDIS ABABA S RAILWAY TO START OPERATION ON JANUARY Ethiopian Railway Corporation announced by January 2015 the Addis Ababa rail ways system will go operational. ( Merkato) According to the Corporation s General Manager, Dr. Getachew Betru, the entire project is currently 70 percent over. He further noted concerning the civil works, bridges and underground (cave) constructions part of the project is already 90 percent concluded. Getachew added a major difficulty the project faced was proper railway administration. He explained now the Corporation is trying to do away with the challenge with professional companies that help operate the railway system. The General Manager for the Addis Ababa Light Railway Project, Engineer Behailu Sintayehu, said the civil work is over. Along to this, welding of railway as well as construction of power generating poles is being finalized. Behailu added the entire railway system is said to cover over 34 kilometers and have proper stations in every 700 Meters distance in average. This project has thus far created a total of 3000 jobs. According to the Ethiopian News Agency, the Addis Ababa Light Rail Transit Project was started on January 31,

7 MINI TO MIDI, AS CITY ANNOUNCES TRANSPORT CHANGES The mini-buses will be phased out and replaced by larger midi-buses to support increased flow from new light railway ( Addis Fortune) The 12 seaters white and blue taxis to be replaced by the midi buses at the Meskel square, a place where many of these taxis converge as a destination and departure for and to the different routes. As part of the city administration s plan to gradually replace the mini bus taxi transport operators with midi bus mass transportation services, the 13 minibus taxi owners associations are to be reorganised in two bigger share companies. This move was announced by the Addis Abeba Transport Branch Office of the Federal Transport Authority at a meeting held with taxi owners associations a week earlier, on Saturday, June 28, Members of the associations will be expected to change their vehicles into midi buses, with a capacity of up to 24 passengers, according to the announcement. There are three major service providers in a city, the 12-seater white and blue minibus taxis; the midi-buses, which seat 22 to 27 people (the latest entrants to the business) and are becoming increasingly popular and the limited number of large Anbessa City buses (which carry 30 people seated and 70 standing). Together, these alternatives are struggling to cope with the public s demand for transportation. The 800 city buses now operating handle the majority of the 600,000 daily commuters, according to information from the Branch Office. The midi-buses, more than 500 in number, are also among the mass transporters of commuters. The second largest commuters, 1.1 million, are catered for by the estimated 20,000 blue and white taxis brimming all over the city. Private vehicles account for five percent and the remaining 60.5pc make their trips on foot. It was the owners of these blue and white taxis that were organised under 13 owners associations based on the zoning system the administration reintroduced in The number of members in each association varies, with a minimum number of 500. These associations have been engaged in different activities, such as service route management, which is circulated between the members. The city administration has announced its recent intentions of upgrading the organisational structure, along with transforming minibus operators to midi bus operators ensued with the upcoming light railway transportation service. The railway is expected to increase the volume of disembarking passengers, which the 7

8 taxis are supposed to carry from the major terminals to the different routes across the city. Therefore, minibuses have to enhance their capacity by changing to midi busses, which carry almost double the amount of people. The government is also conducting research on the options of financing the taxi owners upgrade to midi buses, according to Abebaw Kasa, coordinator of the Tsehay Taxi Owners Association. Officials from the transport office told the operators on June 28, 2014, that the administration will help them find 70pc of the cost on credit, while they have to save the remaining 30pc, according to Abebaw. The two new share companies are likely to follow the model of Alliance Transport Services S.C a private transport operators company, established with 35 million paid up capital in

9 HAWASSA AIRPORT CONSTRUCTION TENDER OPEN AS DESIGNERS SIGN OFF Over the next 30 days, the Ethiopian Airports Enterprise (EAE) will be looking for potential bidders to build the Hawassa Airport, with the design now complete. ( Addis Fortune) The bid document, which will be available from tomorrow, is based on an airfield design by the state owned consulting firm Transport Construction Design Enterprise (TCDE) and a terminal design by private consulting firm, Bereket Tesfaye Consulting Architects and Engineering, according to Wondeme Teklu, the enterprise s communications head. The airport in the tourist city 275kms south of Addis Abeba and the capital of the southern regional state will be the 19th airport to Ethiopia. The TCDE s design for the airfield was completed last week, while the Enterprise is already considering three designs for the terminal. The TCDE has been involved in the design and supervision of road, bridge and airport construction since it was established in August For 30 years prior to that, it had been a department under the Ethiopia Roads Authority (ERA), playing a similar consultancy role. Bereket Tesfaye s three designs for the terminal building include a VIP lounge, restaurant, roof terrace, kitchen, security check points and baggage handling, all within a five-storey building. The construction of both the airfield and the terminal will start before the end of this [calendar] year, said Wondeme. Hawassa, home to the BGI Brewery, Millennium Pepsi Cola Plant, Hawassa Textile Factory S.C and numerous hotels, is also projected to have an industry zone, along with Kombolcha, in Amhara, and Dire Dawa. The Enterprise recently awarded a million Br construction contract to Afro-Tsion Construction Plc for Jinka Airport. Construction has been underway for a month now on a three million square metre plot of land. The airfield alone measures 2.5kms in length and 60m in width enough to accommodate the Boeing 737 aircraft. The EAE was formally established as a public enterprise in January 2003, by the Council of Ministers (CoM), with a capital of two billion Br. Previously known as the Civil Aviation Authority, its responsibilities included economic and technical regulations, airport services and aviation security. Now the EAE handles airport services, while the National Security & Intelligence Affairs is responsible for airport security. 9

10 The Enterprise administers 18 airports across the country; four of these Semera, Shibalo, Pawe and Robe Goba are graveled, whilst four others Addis Abeba Bole, Dire Dawa, Bahir Dar and Mekelle Alula Aba Nega are international airports. According to the Growth & Transformation Plan (GTP), the Enterprise plans to have a total of 21 airports before the end of 2014/15 fiscal year. The Kombolcha airport, which has been under construction since 2010, is expected to become operational by September 2014, according to Wondeme. On the expansion side, the China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC) started the expansion project of the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport passenger terminal, which will incorporate a new passenger terminal as an extension to existing terminals, as well as the construction of a new VIP terminal. The total cost for this project will be 4.5 billion Br. The financing was obtained from the Export- Import (EXIM) Bank of China as a loan through the construction company. 10

11 SOUTH SUDAN S.SUDAN LEADERS TOLD TO TALK AS FAMINE LOOMS Addis Ababa - South Sudan's warring leaders must resume stalled peace talks in earnest before the months-long bloody conflict is written off as an international lost cause, a senior AU official warned on Monday. ( AFP) Thousands have been killed and more than 1.5 million people forced to flee as a political row between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar has spiralled into brutal ethnic conflict. The world's newest nation is facing a worse crisis than during the two decades of war before South Sudan declared independence three years ago, with some 100,000 people crammed into squalid UN camps. Aid agencies warn the country could plunge into famine in weeks with almost four million people in need of aid if international donors do not make up a shortfall of over a billion dollars. Peace talks in luxury hotels in Addis Ababa have made little progress and last month the negotiations halted indefinitely, with both sides refusing to attend the discussions. Former Nigerian president Obasanjo, who is heading up an AU probe to investigate atrocities in South Sudan following reports both sides have committed gross human rights violations, urged reconciliation. "The alternative to talking is for them to go into violence again, so we must encourage them to keep talking," he said. The regional mediating bloc, IGAD, has given both sides until August 11 to form an interim government, a deadline that looks unlikely to be met after a third ceasefire was recently broken. Without meaningful talks, "anything can happen, there can be outbreak (of violence) and the outbreak can snowball". Two mass graves had so far been discovered, he said, with reports of further burial sites in oil-rich Bentiu and Bor, which have been the scenes of heavy fighting between the Dinka people loyal to Kiir and Machar's Nuer tribe. Obasanjo urged leaders to focus on political reform, arguing that justice is a crucial first step towards ending the conflict. "The first thing that you have to do to reconcile people is to ensure that theres an element of justice," he said. 11

12 DJIBOUTI RDD-ITALIE : LE CHEF DE LA DIPLOMATIE DJIBOUTIENNE SALUE LE SOUTIEN DE L ITALIE À L IGAD ( La Nation) Lors de son entretien de mardi dernier avec une délégation italienne, le ministre des Affaires étrangères et de la Coopération internationale, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, par ailleurs porte-parole du gouvernement djiboutien, a salué le rôle positif joué par l Italie qu il a qualifiée de chef de file des partenaires de l IGAD. Les discussions entre la délégation italienne conduite par le vice-ministre des Affaires étrangères du Gouvernement de M. Renzi, M. Lappo Pistelli, et M. MAY, ont porté en outre sur les relations d amitié et de coopération entre Rome et Djibouti. Mardi dernier au ministère des Affaires étrangères, les discussions entre le chef de la diplomatie Djiboutienne, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, porte-parole du Gouvernement, et une délégation italienne conduite par M. Lappo Pistelli, vice-ministre des Affaires étrangères du Gouvernement Renzi, ont été franches et amicales. M. Pistelli, accompagné d un certain nombre de hauts responsables italiens dont M. Giuseppe Mistretta, ambassadeur d Italie en Ethiopie, ont porté sur la situation régionale et surtout sur le rôle de l organisation régionale, IGAD, à laquelle l Italie apporte un soutien constant. Le ministre djiboutien des Affaires étrangères a d ailleurs tenu à saluer le rôle de l Italie comme chef de file des partenaires de l IGAD. Les relations d amitié et de coopération entre Djibouti et l Italie n ont pas été en reste puisque les deux parties en ont également discuté. Le chef de la diplomatie Djiboutienne a exprimé le souhait de voir son pays bénéficier davantage de l expertise italienne, notamment dans le domaine militaire. Le renforcement du rôle de Djibouti dans la lutte antiterroriste a également été évoqué ainsi que l intégration régionale dans le cadre de l IGAD. 12

13 AFRICA L EAST AFRICA PUNTA ALL INDIA AFRICA ORIENTALE Promuovere le esportazioni dell Africa Orientale verso l India. ( Notiziario Infoafrica) Questo il tema al centro della conferenza internazionale organizzata domani a Nairobi e che fino a sabato riunirà rappresentanti pubblici e privati di sei paesi: India, Etiopia, Kenya, Ruanda, Uganda e Tanzania. I rappresentanti discuteranno temi come l importanza emergente della cooperazione Sud-Sud, le relazioni commerciali tra l India e l Africa orientale e la promozione degli investimenti indiani in Africa per creare opportunità di partnership si legge in una nota del Centro del commercio internazionale, che organizza l evento. Secondo un recente studio del ministero dell economia indiano, le esportazioni di prodotti africani verso l India aumentano del 45% l anno. Dall agosto del 2008 è attivo uno schema preferenziale esente da dazi (Duty Free Tariff Preference Scheme) che garantisce l accesso esentasse all 85% dei prodotti movimentati e dazi preferenziali a un altro 9% di beni. In questo schema tariffario particolare rientrano 33 paesi africani. Lo scambio commerciale tra India e Africa, secondo i dati indiani, è aumentato, tra il 2005 e il 2012, del 30%, attestandosi intorno a un valore superiore ai 72 miliardi di dollari. L Africa conta per il 9% del commercio totale indiano. Recentemente l India ha alzato l asticella delle relazioni commerciali col continente africano, annunciando di voler raggiungere uno scambio commerciale di circa 200 miliardi di dollari entro il

14 UN ANNO DI RECORD A SUD DEL SAHARA PER LA BANCA MONDIALE AFRICA Una cifra record di 15,3 miliardi di dollari è stata messa a disposizione dei paesi dell Africa sub-sahariana dalla Banca Mondiale nell anno fiscale appena concluso, dal luglio 2013 al giugno ( Notiziario Infoafrica) Lo riferisce la stessa Banca in una nota nella quale si precisa che l istituto ha consegnato 10,6 miliardi dollari in nuovi prestiti per 160 progetti durante l anno, tra cui un record di 10,2 miliardi dollari in titoli a tasso zero e sovvenzioni della International Development Association, il fondo per i paesi più poveri. L Africa sub-sahariana ha enormi potenziali risorse idroelettriche che potrebbero generare un enorme fornitura di energia elettrica, ma solo il 10% di tale potenziale è stato sfruttato, ha detto la banca. Promuovere l accesso all energia a prezzi accessibili, e in modo affidabile e sostenibile è un obiettivo primario del lavoro della Banca in Africa si legge ancora nella nota. In Nigeria, la banca sta lavorando a un piano per aumentare la capacità di generazione installata di circa megawatt, mobilitando circa 1,7 miliardi dollari di finanziamenti del settore privato. La banca ha inoltre sostenuto progetto idroelettrico Regionale Rusumo ( Burundi, Ruanda e Tanzania) da 80 megawatt e ha fornito una concessione $ 100 milioni per il Burundi per il progetto idroelettrico Jiji-Mulembwe. 14

15 EVENTS CONCERT FOR CELLO AND PIANO - RALPH LEE, BRIAN WILLSON Wednesday 9th July at 6.30 pm at the Italian Cultural Institute 15