In fact the final pillar of our innocence is regional integration and openness to the world. Regional integration and trade will be crucial to the future of our continent allowing us to grow beyond primary commodities and accelerate our development.
Addis Ababa is a seat of the Africa Union and so must lead by example our determination explains our active engagement in discussions on the African continent a free trade area and our sense of urgency to finalize Ethiopians accession to the World Trade Organization history has demonstrated time and again that neighbors with intimate rolebased and the diverse trade and economic relations are unlikely to resort to conflict that is why we believe integration must be viewed not just as an economic project but also as crucial to securing peace and reconciliation in the Horn of Africa the adage from our and sister is if you want to go fast go alone but if you want to go far go together and this split Ethiopia has ended two decades of military settlement with Eritrea and is enhancing cooperation with neighboring countries and reconfiguring the geopolitics in our region Ethiopia believes that an affricate peace with itself can counteract the chaotic push of mass migration as such Ethiopia aims to increase the influx of smart capital into African continent there is a strong case to be made for investing in our continent even the most conservative asset allocation of an investment portfolio should prudently consider this option if just 2% of the 40 trillion USD in OECD pension assets were invested into Africa over the coming five years it would exceed the total foreign investment that we have seen in the last five years by more than three times for investors considering the record of return this offers higher than average rewards and diversification of risk for Ethiopia it would catalyze transformation to realize this great opportunity we appreciate the fundamental need to the risk our politics and economics which would reduce the premium sought by prospective investors part of that process is to build trust and confidence and to lead by example I believe that our record over the last year shows this to be so dear friends let me conclude Ethiopia has embraced a great vision and embarked on board reforms improving the political environment and the business climate is our priority building an open society and vibrant economy is our shared aspiration and our proposition to you but we must all act fast our record over the last nine months should illustrate our resource this is an this is an agenda for action a blueprint from a model of virtuous and sustainable growth looking at what we have accomplished in less than a year I am optimistic and excited about the opportunities that are ahead Ethiopians are born runners and we excel in marathons take it as a signal of our intention and level of commitment and stamina now is our time rating agencies forecast and I caught that growth will reach eight percent over twenty eighteen to twenty twenty-one making Ethiopia the fastest-growing of the sovereign we rate I say to you carpe diem yes Caesar day but also trust the future come and see what we have offer and invest in our potential whether you are an entrepreneur a CEO or industrialist or just a lover of nature or history or beauty it will be uh something for you I thank you.
Dr. Abiy’s conversation with Børge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum Prime Minister, I think you also heard from the warm applause that there is so much goodwill related to your leadership. But as you said it’s a marathon but it has to be also you have to run fast and you’re good at that. What do you don’t think about when you come to a decision is the altitude so for foreigners it’s a big challenge. This morning we had also a session on Ethiopia and you were a leadership. And one of the experienced humanitarian said that when he was in Ethiopia a year ago and asked his people they would say that they would have most loyal tree to the tribe then – they felt like it was their identity then it was Africa and then it was Ethiopia when he was back a month ago the same people said I know have strongest identity as an Ethiopian and then African and then tribe there how have you managed to change this in seven months? I think other leaders could learn maybe even in Europe. Some nine months ago, the situation in Ethiopia as you have stated was very bad, the near possibility of state collapse mainly due to the government wrong response to the public political and economic demand that pushed the nation into dangerous course. What makes the situation more dangerous was the poor relationship among the leadership.
There was misunderstanding, mistrust and mutual suspicion among the top leadership due to this problem. Therefore, we collect data from different source. We analyze it using different techniques and mechanisms. And definitely, if you use different source and different mechanism to analyze the information, the output cannot be identical. So having or seeing the problem from different perspective, we can’t find the solution to solve the problem and to change the situation. To make long story short, when the situation gets worse, we sat for weeks to discuss and evaluate as a party then we have achieved finally leadership change not only leadership change but also peaceful power transfer which is a very rare experience in Africa.
Right after the change, the new leadership decided to listen from the public the opinion, the grievances so as to make a communal solution to resolve the current problem. We have discussed with almost all corner of the country we have traveled. And we have discovered the public with their grievances and their demons mainly their demands where they complained about the government, about our indecision. Also the widespread injustice was in politics and economics as well and human rights violation. What we did was we didn’t undermine the public grievance. We just sat to evaluate all questions which came across the country though we prioritize to fix some of the problems in Cripple’s and others in stationery for like I mentioned before.
We automatically lifted state of emergency that was one of the questions of the public and released thousands of prisoners including journalists. Today we don’t have a single journalist in prison. Part of that’s also rare these days. If you are open-minded and open heart, you can learn. It is not bad sometimes learn from Africa’s way. Anyways, not only this, we also invite all opposition party that was based abroad. Not only opposition party, but was also waged armed struggle against the government, they all are back now. We don’t have any opposition party abroad. We’re discussing how to change the political landscape and how to make the upcoming election democratic, free and the better one from the previous one.
Compared to the previous one, these kinds of action change the mind of many Ethiopians that the hope is there, the policies the possibility of change also there automatically. After we have done descriptions, we jump to institutional reform including SSI, reform security service reform. There was one of the biggest complaints on security institutions and service also. We reduce cabinet from 28 to 20 and we realized gender parity in our cabinet. By doing so, we could gather most of the extreme thoughts to the center. But still we have to do more. We’re not satisfying on our reform; we have to include all kinds of thoughts to change Ethiopia, a very great country.
And the government must play its great role so as to bring Ethiopia together and to be it Ethiopian first. I think I’m just wondering Prime Minister, we know that the war with Eritrea has been going on for a long time and Ethiopia has as no part is a huge country it has 100 million people but I’m just wondering how did you dare? I just travel up to Asmara to meet with President Isayas and then declare peace between the two countries. Weren’t you concerned with setbacks the military would be upset, you know there is probably a lot of people even inside your country questioning this? Coming to Davos is more dangerous than going to there because there is big difference at least in terms of whether.
The most important thing is this is a sheared quarterly the issue of conflict in our region mainly its problems of leaders’ ego. There is no tangible reason. When we are together we can make significant change in our society. When we were apart, both of us had killing each other and losing all the opportunities and building far to the Western world. So my question to the region is not only to reset the problem but also economic integration. There is no need to have different army in Ethiopia, in Eritrea or Djibouti. I don’t believe in this, there is no need to have for embracive here in Switzerland for each of East African countries we can. We can share because we’re poor, we have to allocate their resource to change the life of our society, that’s why I go here and presence is in the people the people of Eritrea was welcoming thing is a resolved.
Herald January 26/2019
