The cooperation between Ethiopia and India is a good example of South-South cooperation based on mutual respect and benefit, Foreign Affairs State Minister Tsion Teklu said.
Speaking at a discussion forum organized by Embassy of India and India Business Forum on Tuesday May 25, the state minister said the relationship between the two countries has deepened significantly and their cooperation is based on mutual respect and benefit.
This is a good example of South-South cooperation and Ethiopia draws meaningful lessons from India’s experiences and expertise in different areas, she added.
Noting that India is among the largest sources of FID in Ethiopia, Tsion said, adding that “what makes India unique is the fact that the contribution is not only through investment but also trade, education, consultancy and capacity building.”
According to her, the Government of Ethiopia is working tirelessly to widen and deepen its reforms which promote democratization, rule of law, god governance as well as working on the serious measures aimed at reforming the economy and financial management so as to promote transparency and accountability across the entire administration.
This will make Ethiopia one of the best destinations of FDI in Africa, the state minister pointed out.
India’s Ambassador to Ethiopia, Shetkintong Robert said Indian companies are among the largest foreign investors in Ethiopia engaged in different sectors.
“During the last one year alone we have 35 new Indian investment projects here in Ethiopia, despite the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ambassador Robert stated.
There are about 607 Indian companies in Ethiopia with licensed investment of over 5 billion USD, out of which about 3 billion USD is estimated to be on the ground and created jobs for 75,000 people.
About 60 percent of Indian investments are in manufacturing, followed by 18 percent in agriculture. Others are in floriculture, engineering, plastics, cotton and textiles, water management, consultancy and ICT, education, pharmaceuticals and health care.
Cooperation between Ethiopia, India based on mutual respect, benefit
Ethio telecom aggressively upgrading its service
Ethio telecom is aggressively upgrading its service all over the country making it the most vibrant company in the country. Despite the process of privatization the sole telecom provider is advancing its service in different parts of the country.
This time the company yet again launched its 4G LTE Advanced service in its East Region on Tuesday May 25 and Central East Region on Thursday May 27. East 0Region includes Dire Dawa, Ayisha and Chiro towns while the Central East Region includes Harar, Aweday and Haremaya towns.
The expansion is based on where the company said that there is high mobile data traffic and surge in demand. “The service covers areas with a high demand for speedy internet,” said Frehiwot Tamiru, CEO of Ethio telecom during the launching ceremony.
LTE Advanced mobile service is one of the latest mobile technologies providing reliable connections enriching customers’ experience with exceptional speed to download or upload large-sized data, high-definition (HD) multimedia, live streaming and video conferencing in real-time.
The new expansion will enable and empower customers to digitize their services, increase productivity and improve their experiences.
Speaking about the expansion of the new project at the launching ceremony Frehiwot said, “It opens a new chapter and brings an immediate impact on congested areas of telecom service.”
Our massive 4G LTE expansion in the country including the one we made here today is also aimed at facilitating conditions for the mobile banking service including the newly-launched Telebirr. The internet service advancement in the area also contributes to modernizing economic activities and easing COVID-19’s business impact thereby helping the country’s move to digital economy, she remarked.
The project is one of ethio telecom’s three-year growth strategies, including data traffic growth, and demand-based 4G/LTE expansion around the country.
Ethio telecom’s internet penetration rate has also surpassed the overall sub-Saharan countries’ operators. The current mobile penetration in Ethiopia is over 51 percent while it is 45 percent in sub-Sahara Africa.
The reliability and high-speed features of the 4G LTE service will also increase productivity and improve experiences of the over 1.3 million ethio telecom customers in the region of which 330,000 have smart phones capable of operating the advanced service. The CEO
further stated that amongst the 244 ethio telecom stations in the East Region, 47 will run the advanced service which is 11 times faster than the existing connectivity.
Prior to this launch, ethio telecom has established a 4G network in its South East, North-West, East East, South South West regions within 2021, following the 4G launch in capital Addis Ababa one year earlier. The operator has also a vision to launch 5G by 2022 at pilot level.
Nyala Insurance S.C purchases a 26 mln birr bond for GERD construction
Nyala Insurance S.C has purchased a 26.7 Million Birr Bond in support of the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Officials and public figures who attended the ceremony have extended gratitude to the company on behalf of Ethiopians for its support of the national flag project.
It is stated on the occasion that the National Public Participation Coordination Office has mobilized more than 17 Billion Birr for the construction of GERD from the community.
The construction of the dam has reached close to 80 percent according to officials.
We need to close the vaccination gap
By Josep Borrell
By the end of May 2021, only 2.1 % of Africans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. We need to close the vaccination gap between advanced economies and developing countries to avoid what Tedros Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organisation, has called “vaccination apartheid”. Doing so is both morally right and in everyone’s interest.
Therefore, we need global multilateral action to increase the production of vaccines and accelerate the roll out worldwide. Since the beginning of the pandemic, this is the path chosen by the EU. It is now also the path defined by the G20 leaders at the Global Health Summit in Rome on 21 May.
The pandemic is still killing thousands of people every day and at the current pace, the whole world will not be vaccinated before 2023. Yet, a widely vaccinated world population is the only way to end the pandemic; otherwise, the multiplication of variants is likely to undermine the effectiveness of existing vaccines.
Vaccination is also a prerequisite for lifting the restrictions that are holding back our economies and freedoms. These restrictions penalise the whole world, but they weigh even more heavily on developing countries. Advanced countries can rely more on social mechanisms and economic policy levers to limit the impact of the pandemic on their citizens.
If the vaccination gap persists, it risks reversing the trend in recent decades of declining poverty and global inequalities. Such a negative dynamic would hold back economic activity and increase geopolitical tensions. The cost of inaction would for sure be much higher for advanced economies than what we collectively would have to spend to help vaccinate the whole world. Therefore, the EU welcomes the $50 billion plan proposed by the International Monetary Fund in order to be able to vaccinate 40% of the world population in 2021 and 60% by mid-2022.
To achieve this goal, we need closely coordinated multilateral action. We must resist the threats posed by “vaccine diplomacy”, linking the provision of vaccines to political goals, and “vaccine nationalism”, reserving vaccines foroneself. In contrast to others, the EU has rejected both since the beginning of the pandemic. Until now, we have been the only global actor that is vaccinating its own population; exporting large volumes of vaccines; and contributing substantially to the vaccines rollout in low-income countries. Europeans can be proud of this record.
In 2020, the EU supported the research and development of vaccines on a large scale and contributed significantly to the new generation of mRNA vaccines. The EU then became a major producer of COVID-19 vaccines with, according to the WHO, around 40% of the doses used globally so far. The EU has also exported 240 million doses to 90countries, which is about as much as we have used within the EU.
The EU with its member states and financial institutions – what we call “Team Europe”– is also donating vaccines to neigh bours in need, particularly in the Western Balkans. It aims todonate at least 100 million more doses to low- and middle-income countries before the end of 2021, as agreed at the last European Council. With €2.8 billion, Team Europe has also been themain contributor to the COVAX facility, which enables poorer countries to access vaccines; around one-third of all COVAX doses delivered so far have been financed by the EU. However, this effort is still far from sufficient to prevent the vaccination gap from widening.
To fill this gap, countries with the required knowledge and means should increase their production capacities, so that they can both vaccinate their own populations and export more vaccines, as the EU is doing. In cooperation with vaccine manufacturers, we are working to increase the EU vaccine production capacities to more than 3 billion doses a year by the end of 2021. Our European industrial partners have committed to deliver 1.3 billion doses of vaccines before the end of 2021 to low-income countries at no-profit and to middle-income countries at lower prices. They have also committed themselves to further deliverover 1.3 billion doses for 2022 – many of which will be delivered through COVAX.
All countries must avoid restrictive measures that affect vaccine supply chains. We also need to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology, so that morecountries can produce vaccines. For our part, we are strongly encouraging European producers to do so, especially in Africa. I participated at the Paris summit on financial support for Africa on 18 May, where the continent’s leaders stressed that Africa imports 99% of its vaccines. This has to change. Team Europe is launching an initiative to this end– backed by €1 billion funding from the EU budget and European development financial institutions–with African partners to boost manufacturing capacity in Africa for vaccines, medicines and health technologies.
Voluntary licensing is the privileged way to ensure such transfer of technology and know-how. If it turns out to be insufficient, the existing TRIPS Agreement and the 2001 Doha Declaration already foresee the possibility of compulsory licensing. According to some countries, these flexibilities are however too difficult and too slow to use. To speed up these technology transfers, the EU will come forward with a new proposal in the WTO framework by early June.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us that health is a global public good. Our common global COVID-19 vaccine action to close the vaccination gap must be the first step toward agenuine global health cooperation, as foreseen by the Rome Declaration recently adopted at the Global Health Summit.
Josep Borrell is EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission
