It is almost nine months since the government led by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed has embarked on fundamental reform measures that could have a glaring impact even on countries of the Horn of Africa. And that is why the reform measures, right from the outset, have been high on the agenda of the international community.
The international community has been expressing its support to the reforms and the reformist government in many ways. Apart from the verbal pledges, high level state delegations of various countries, funding organizations as well as regional and international organizations have continued to pour their supports through official visits one after the other and thereby pledging more and more financial and other supports to consolidate the reform. Some of them have actually granted their financial supports.
By the same token, major media outlets of our planet, such as the CNN, BBC, CGTN, The Guardian and The Washington Post, have still continued giving wider coverage about the sweeping reforms underway and the changes surfaced as a result of it both in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa in general. So much so that! The world has fathomed our country’s reforms.
The sustained visits of high level state delegations and continuous media coverage bestowed on Ethiopia is self-evident to the kind of reforms we are having in this country and the subsequent outcomes either emerging or likely to come out of it. The underlined fact that can be deducted from the assorted actions of the international community is that the reforms underway are proper and fitting to the expectations of the international community. But that is not all. The reliability of the reforms by itself is another factor to allure supports.
The comprehensive nature of the reforms is also another area that the international community must have heeded before it came to support. Above all, the scope of the reforms is a compelling factor to support. For example, the much worldly-acclaimed Ethio-Eritrean peace agreement and the subsequent bilateral agreements Ethiopia has made with its neighbors as well as other regional and international partners are all the outcomes of the reform measures.
The initiatives sketched and implemented by the government of Ethiopia are believed to sustain peace and security while promising better opportunities of development not only to itself but also to its neighbors and the much troubled Horn. It even may lead the countries to regional integration.
Thanks to the reforms, development partners have continued to provide development funds. They are rendering technical supports, sharing their experiences in removing all hurdles on the way to peace, democracy and development. They are also encouraging their potential investors to have full confidence in the country, an important action that is likely to upsurge the inflow of FDI to the country.
The supports given by the international community are expected to be intensified because they are necessary to expedite the reforms. Such supports would lay the reform on solid base. As has been expressed by the pledges of visiting foreign delegations, the international community is expected to continue its contributions.
That is how the government will be able to bring about lasting peace, democracy and economic progress whose impacts have a transcending impact to countries of the Horn and even beyond.
Herald January 11/2019
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