BY FITSUM GETACHEW
On Tuesday November 15, 2022 Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) was in parliament to answer questions and provide explanations in relation to the inaugural address the head of state had made in the opening of the House of Peoples Representatives and the House of Federation some weeks ago. The parliament was also expected to pass the motion in relation to this address of President SahleWork Zewde to the joint session of the Houses.
The premier began by receiving the questions parliamentarians had on that address and other national issues such as the economy, the inflationary cycle the country has been suffering from, the wide spread corruption that has been noted as a huge challenge to the society as well as the recently fixed peace deal with TPLF. As usual the premier received scores of questions from the MPs and answered those in one go in a long session of explanations and observations.
The main takes of his explanations were basically focused on three major issues. He talked at length about how the Ethiopian economy was doing despite the multiple challenges the country faced. He said it was doing fine even if there are several areas in which we all should do better, work harder. In this respect he said that all of our efforts are vain if we cannot curb corruption and abuse of power by authorities.
The other area he dwelt on at length is the peace deal with TPLF and Ethiopia’s diplomatic ventures. He underlined that Ethiopia will always prefer peace to war and conflict adding any kind of peace deal is preferable to any kind of war. He remarked how war is deadly in any circumstance and is not good even when one was winning. In short we can say his areas of focus were the economy, corruption, the peace deal and what the government was engaged with in these areas of focus.
The first thing the premier did was present the numbers, the statistics regarding the performance of the economy even in time of various and multiple challenges such as the war in the north and various kinds of violence we experience in many areas of the country. Shene was specifically cited by the MPs and the atrocities it commits in certain parts of the country particularly in Welega.
The premier said the potential of the economy was enormous provided we worked harder and more. He cited the tourism sector that could be growing faster thanks to the various projects this government has undertaken and accomplished and the Gorgora Project as well as the Wenchi and Koisha projects have been mentioned besides what has been happening in the capital particularly mentioning what he intended to build a kind of modern city within the city. This he said was fundamental for the creation of jobs not only in the construction of these projects but also in engaging in post construction work places for the tourism industry.
The premier noted despite the fact that there were the challenges to the security of the country that emerged due to the war in the north and insurgencies that sprout here and there, the economy has not stopped nor relented because the country is big and it is endowed with so much potential that there are several factors that have played in favour of the growth of the economy.
The premier said the GDP of Ethiopia has grown by 6.5 per cent last year and is expected to grow by 7.5 per cent now that the country can focus more on the economy rather than on war efforts. The premier noted even a few days of peace have been useful to change the dynamics of the economy because wars are destructive and distract us from the trajectory of development. Reconstruction and rehabilitation of the affected has already begun without wasting time.
Regarding the growth of the economy he cited some numbers of the World Bank which puts the Ethiopian economy the biggest in East Africa and the third largest in Sub-Saharan Africa. He cited the main growth was experienced in the agriculture sector where the potential of the country remains enormous. Talking about the plantation of wheat using irrigation and various kinds of fruits and vegetables he said these recent developments show that Ethiopia can do away with imports of wheat and rather begin to export shortly saving millions in foreign currency. He talked about millions of quintals of wheat that have been harvested and continue to be harvested shortly while rice as well has also been discovered as another asset for the country now being produced in large quantities. This premier said will contribute largely to the efforts the country has been undertaking towards food self-sufficiency and even engage in producing even for export purposes. He talked about the lack of network and logistics in putting for sale at the right market of fruits where there is immense potential and if those problems are solved there will be a lot to talk about when it comes to export.
The premier also highlighted some of the best performances of the economy regarding the financial sector and how banks have been expanding. He talked about the service sector where Ethiopian Air Lines has been taking the lion’s share of the dividends that have helped the service sector expand by leaps and bounds while Ethio telecom has registered immense progress during the past few years with millions of new customers joining the service and helping the body attain new heights not only because of the effectiveness of the service but also because this service has joined the financial sector with telebirr being used by millions of customers of transacting using this new system.
The advanced technological developments have thus served the country gain in many respects.
Talking about the respect of the rule of law and the challenges people face in having their rights respected he said we needed to make progress and expressly made reference to the legal machinery of the country mentioning the judiciary as part of the huge problem many complain about. The premier mentioned the prosecutors of the country, the police and the judges in this area. He said there are definitely those who are honest and law abiding professionals in the sector, faithful to the professional ethics of the vocation but these he said are considered by their relatives and friends as fools or naïve who do not take advantage of their position. This has constituted a real challenge to our fight against illegality and corruption.
There should be a fight for a total change in our attitude and manage to stigmatize those who abuse their power for personal benefits and even violate the law for the same purpose. This has been a huge challenge for years and continues to be one that we have not been able to overcome. He said it was time that the parliament and the executive acted more vigorously to solve this problem. As long as there are such practices of abuse of power, corruption and violations of laws, growth in the economy will be stifled and overrun to levels of insignificance. This is a huge problem we must all work together to solve, the premier warned.
Talking about questions that refer to the war in the north and how the government was about to implement the peace deal the premier began by asserting that all sorts of wars are destructive and we must take every opportunity to distance ourselves from conflicts and work for any kind of peace deal because in the end any kind of peace is better than any kind of conflict.
The Pretoria Peace deal is hence a huge success and accomplishment for Ethiopia because it was what we were insisting on for years even before the beginning of the hostilities in the northern war. Today it is time to talk about how we feed all those who have been affected by the protracted violence, reconstruct the devastation the violence has resulted and rehabilitate those who were evicted of their natural habitats. The premier said the Ethiopian national defense forces are doing exactly what they used to do in the prewar epochs not thinking of revenge, forgetting the days in which they were attacked and working for the reconstruction of the economy of the Tigray region. The premier said the people of Tigray deserve to be assisted and be put in conditions of conducting their lives as in prewar days and if it is not the federal government which should do this who will take care of them, he asked. Hence there is a huge responsibility and commitment on the part of the federal government to address various issues in the war torn region forgetting whatever has happened during the past couple of years, the premier underlined. It is time to look forward and embark on a new phase of development as the integrity and sovereignty of the country has been guaranteed thanks to the Pretoria peace. He thanked all those who took part or facilitated the deal fixed in South Africa. He thanked South Africa, Kenya, the AU and EU as well as the US for their support in the deal. He also thanked former president of Nigeria Olesegun Obasanjo as well as former president of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta for their active involvement in the peace deal in line with the principle ‘African solution for African problem’.
Ethiopia is a country with immense potential and the issue is how to use it and come out of poverty and aid dependency. Avoiding wars and conflicts is fundamental and dismissing corrupt practices is another one that creates major obstacle to any form of economic growth. The premier mentioned some of the measures his administration has been taking to halt inflation that has been a world phenomenon he said and added that he was optimistic that with the growth of the economy under all aspects and the collection of more foreign currency with the expansion of homemade products rather than rely on imported goods particularly those that are not considered basic by the society such as liquors, artificial hair and cosmetic products, and soaps etc. which could be substituted by domestically produced merchandizes, inflation could be reduced. When we fill the gap between supply and demand the inflationary tendency is bound to abate, the premier said.
Specifically asked about how the government was to address the security issue of the country due to Shene’s activities the premier said this is a body that has no objectives, no vision and no purpose other than killing innocent people and burning down villages. It is an organization that has no command and control mechanism and is divided and even fights between its own ranks and files. Even those who try to make use of their activities and support them in various modes are perplexed about what they are doing. Hence the premier said we are confident that they will not survive for long because they cannot have approval of the people nor attract new followers. He said we will continue to fight and neutralize them but if they put down their arms and are ready to talk based on the laws of the country, we are ready to do so. We have repeatedly underlined that we do not pose preconditions for peace provided the sovereignty and integrity of the country are guaranteed and the constitutional order is respected.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2022
