Ethiopia sends high officials to regional countries and partners to clarify its stand on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and tripartite negotiation on the Abay (Nile) river.
Ethiopia embarked the construction of the biggest ever hydro power project that will generate 5,250mw on Tikur Abay (Blue Nile) some years back.
Since the project commenced the downstream country, Egypt, expressed its concern, despite the fact that the project would not harm the downstream countries, which Sudan agrees.
Ethiopia has also been facilitating comprehensive engagements to address the concerns of the riparian countries since the inception of the construction of the GERD.
To tackle the concerns the three countries Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt discussed for years, while the negotiation interrupted mainly by many reasons that mainly come from Egypt. Sudan has already given its support for the project officially.
Recently after several months disappearance Egypt expressed its interest to resume the negotiation with the World Bank, to recommence the negotiation that both Ethiopia and Sudan accepted.
However the fresh negotiation is also halted after Ethiopian refused to adhere with the involvement of other parties.
The government clearly expressed its stand by stating that the project is run by local resource in Ethiopian territory and no one would dare to stop it.
It announced that the project that would not have significant harm in the downstream countries will be filled as per the schedule.
In an interview Gedu Andargachew, Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated “Egyptian water experts and politicians know too well that our dam will not harm their interests. It will only generate electricity and won’t consume any water.”
Ethiopia is now drafting its own proposal on how to resolve the standoff and it will be present it to Egypt and Sudan soon, said Gedu.
Ethiopia also wants some other parties like the African Union to observe besides the US and the World Bank.
On the same token Ethiopia has dispatched former President Mulatu Teshome to clarify its stand on the project in Europe.
President Sahle-Work Zewdie also visited Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, which are also upstream countries.
The joint statements after the president visit indicates that the countries support the Ethiopian stand, which highly insist for cooperation and mutual benefit than accessing the water on unilateral manner.
On her recent meeting with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, both underscored that cooperation among the Nile Basin countries should be take into account the scientific analysis provided by technical experts.
As Egypt considers the Nile as a survival issue, it has to also acknowledge the natural rights of riparian countries to exploit the resource, Kagame added.
Noting that the Nile issue is an issue for all riparian countries, the Rwandan president called on to solve disputes over the river through Africa-based discussions and negotiation forums, adding that his country is committed to being part of the solution.
Kenyan and Ugandan leaders have also similar stand on the use of the river.
Ethiopia steps up diplomatic action in GERD dispute
Ethiopian Airlines negotiating with its suppliers for price reduction
Due to the expanding range and impact of the corona virus- covid19 on the economic and social crises worldwide, the star alliance member Ethiopian air lines starts to negotiate with its suppliers and service providers for a discount.
In an email sent to its suppliers the airline is asking to be provided with discount on all materials supplied by companies by way of concession, volume or monetary amount to minimize the impact and survive the business.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in his announcement, stated that the nation flagship airline has grounded its flight to 30 destinations. Previously the airline cut off fights to some destinations after the destination airports were closed due to the corona virus crises.
Ethiopian air lines has grounded many of its aircrafts and reduce the flight capacity and tried to operate with minimum possible cost by cutting off all non-essential costs.
“The airline is seeing a 20% decline in demand, the corona virus is a huge challenge” said Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group on African Aviation week that was held last week in Addis Ababa.
As the prime minister stated the air lines loses more than 190 million dollar in revenue so far.
According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa /UNECA/, Ethiopian air lines, May loses up to 260 million dollar if the current spread of corona virus out break continues.
Ethiopian Airlines is the major contributor to the economy of the nation contributing 4.1 percent of the GDP according to the International Air transport authority.
The corona virus is a huge challenge “however we have certain other experiences that helps us to minimize the outcome, it is a temporary problem we have a capacity to recover” said Tewolde.
The airline stated, that it is taking all possible preventative measures to protect the customer’s health in accordance with the World Health Organization /WHO/and the International Civil Aviation Organization’s /CAO/ standards.
The company said in a statement that even though many other carriers on the continent and worldwide continue to operate, some Ethiopian social media users have launched a campaign targeting the national carrier, making it look like it is the only carrier that opted to maintain its flights. However, in reality, carriers, such as Kenya Airways, Emirates, Air India, Singapore Airlines, Morocco Airlines, and Turkish Airlines have not grounded their fleet, it said. More than ten carriers continue flying to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, according to the company’s statement.
Ethiopian airlines is a hub from where it serves a network of 125 passenger destinations and 46 freighter destinations.
BLAMING THE VIRUS
The Covid-19 virus is creating havoc all over the human world. Plenty of analyses, theories, including conspiracies, are attempting to explicate the origin as well as the rapid transmission of the declared pandemic. Whatever the cause for its worldwide distribution or wherever its very the origin is, the underlying global system, which facilitates this and many other unpalatable conditions must be acknowledged by all humanity. The modern world system, which began around the time of European settlement in the Americas, is a very complex system, hence, fragile! Therefore, besides the current calamity, there remain many unexamined and disruptive scenarios that must be revealed to the unsuspecting sheeple (human mass)!
If truth be told, the MSM (Main Stream Media) is not interested in enlightening or revealing facts/truth that are not to the liking of global dominant interests. Don’t forget; it is the corporations and their facilitators-the modern states, that own and control the MSM. In the scheme of things (in the modern world) the general welfare of the sheeple is not a priority to the ruling elites. In the make believe world of the MSM, facilitated by the modern plutocratic states, critical issues, which are detrimental to human existence, are not given prominence. For instance, the fact that the world economy is facing a protracted global depression, unseen and unheard, probably in the history of all humanity, is not thoroughly elaborated by the MSM! It is in light of this that one must be clear and very wary about the currently unfolding situation. To be sure, the Covid-19 pandemic is not the cause of the global economic collapse! The global depression has been reverberating in the world economy since the 2007 financial crisis. The status quo now wants to put all the blame for global economic contraction on Covic-19. See the articles next column, on pages 33,36 & 38.
The pandemic is used as a smokescreen to cover the gross criminal activities of the global dominant interests, which are gradually coming to the fore. The 2007 Global Financial Crisis (GLC) will pale in comparison to what is unfolding today. The GLC was labeled (by the establishment) as a crisis of the housing bubble (subprime loans). The ongoing crisis of today might well be called ‘the corporate debt crisis’. However, since the current global collapse is caused by numerous bubbles, it should appropriately be called, ‘the everything bubble crisis’! Again, the whole trick concocted by the MSM and its handlers, is to make sure the global sheeple is focused only the Covid-19 and not on the ongoing global economic Armageddon. Even the oil crisis or the battle between the giant producers, is only a symptom of the chronic crisis underlying the world order. Any body who follows global economic activities is aware of the corporate hype of ‘share buybacks’. Managers of huge corporations access plenty of loans, with literally zero interest rate, and buy the corporation’s own shares from the equity market, with the intention of enriching themselves at the cost of burdening the corporation with massive loans. For example, Boeing managers bought $100 billion (USD) worth of company’s shares from the market, using loans that accrue no interest, literally. Today, Boeing is on the verge of bankruptcy and has openly asked the US government to bail it out. The sad thing about such blatant fraud is; once great companies like Boeing were forced to succumb to the moronic machinations/objectives of the bean counters, while its brilliant engineers/scientists were sidelined. Result; shoddy aircrafts that go by the name 737-Max. Pathetic!
The parasitic economic system that is financialization, still wants to be bailed out, after decimating productive enterprises like Boeing. This time the sheeple must rise up with its pitchfork and deal with corporate criminals as well as their facilitators in governments. The guillotine must be oiled in preparation for the showdown. The Kingdom of Saudi Kingdom might lend a helping hand in that department. Time to call a spade a spade. Crony capitalism must be destroyed without mercy. Capitalism has died a long time ago, especially in the industrially advanced countries of the system. What prevails there is crony capitalism under the political leadership of kleptocracy. Its logic is ‘socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor’! When things go bad, it is always the criminal elements of the system that are bailed out, while the innocents lose their shirts as well as their dignity. This holds true everywhere, including in the poorer countries of the system, like Ethiopia!
“How is that capitalism? To have the government artificially suppress interest rates so that companies can borrow money for below free-market rates, use it to manipulate their own share price, and then when it comes crashing down, then the government bails them out. There is nothing about this that is anything like capitalism. These are not free markets. These markets are rigged by the government.” Peter Schiff. Good Day!
Flower export plummets to zero
Due to the significant loss of the horticulture business in relation with the global coronavirus pandemic, growers urge the government to step in, including rescheduling of loans and capital injection.
The virus does not only affect the public health but the economy is severely attacked in all aspects all over the world.
One of the major area that sever damage occurred is on the perishable sector that includes the fresh flower, vegetable and fruit sector, which is one of the major hard currency earner for Ethiopia.
According to the information Capital obtained from Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association (EHPEA), the demand and price of perishable products has sharply dropped every day particularly as of the beginning of the week.
“The corona pandemic has been putting its scar on the horticulture industry in a big manner in the last days. It is expected to inflict more damage as borders are closing in the destination markets. This is inhibiting the movement of the products and also there is a sharp declining trend of demand,” Tewodros Zewdie Executive Director at EHPEA said.
He told Capital that the value of the product dived down by 82 percent due to the latest problem that happened everywhere in the world.
Borders in Europe are closed and the product cannot be transport from Holland, which is the centre of the flower market in the world, according to the Executive Directive.
“The product is perishable that cannot be stored for long, due to that the product is dumped everywhere that seriously affects local producers,” he added.
Due to the case local producers’ daily sales is almost nil.
To mitigate the challenge the association has already tabled for the government to tackle the problem that is not clear when it will be solved.
“Local banks are already showing interest to take preemptive actions,” Tewodros explained.
On the mitigation plan that is already globally practiced the association considered on public private partnership model to keep the private sector and the government takes their part to solve the problem jointly.
“We believe that all the mitigation measures should not be gone to the government,” Tewodros said.
One of the major decisions the government should apply is reschedule ongoing loans.
“Working capital is also the other challenge for farms since they use the revenue from their daily sales that is currently almost totally dry,” the association head added.
Due to that the association demands the government to inject a working capital to keep running the farms, which have over 150,000 employees.
The VAT refund is also the other area that the government is expected to extradite to support the growers cash flow. Besides the VAT refund suspension the association wants a protection from labor laws in case of downsizing the labor force.
The hard currency repatriation threshold, which is USD 3.86 per kilogram of flower, is also the other area the government is expected to ease for growers.
Making sure that airfreight cargo services are accessible even with less frequencies and with reduced rates is also the other area that the growers needs to be easy.
“Currently the price has drop by more than 80 percent due to that growers could not meet the repatriation threshold placed by government. We expect the government to lift this repatriation,” Tewodros elaborates the challenges.
The document that the association developed to be tabled for the government indicated that due to the corona pandemic the global leading auction market, Flora Holland where nearly 84 percent of the Ethiopian cut flowers are destined to, the average price compared to last year is 63.7 percent less and the turnover is 83.1 percent less than last year.
It added that regarding the cut flowers the average turnover in comparison to last year has dropped to negative 85.9 percent. This is quite alarming and it may compromise the very existence of the industry unless some extraordinary and proactive interventions are made by the government.
“As many of the farms do not have the ability to survive such a catastrophe the trickle-down effects may result in layoff of 50 thousand employees, significant decline of the hard currency repatriation to the country, slow down of local economic activities in the horticulture clusters, among others,” the association document states.
The association head said that these mitigation plans are the condition to keep the horticulture sector from collapsing until the case improved.
“Otherwise it will be very difficult to revamp the sector that registers glittering success. The government should take preemptive and proactive method to easy the problem meanwhile it is difficult to solve it fully,” he added.
He explained that other competitor countries have taken similar measures that Ethiopia should follow. Even though flower is the late comer on the export products list for Ethiopia it has become one of the major export items.
For instance in the first six months of the current budget year the flower, fruit and vegetable sector generates USD 276.3 million that is the second highest after coffee.
In the same period the flower sector separately generated USD 225.3 million, which is 183 percent higher than the target.
