SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
IMAGE: ARIADNA BASTART
Ethiopia A story of growth and assets
A vast and stable country situated on the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia is home to Africa’s most celebrated business hub, Addis Ababa, and a wealth of lucrative natural and human resources just waiting to be tapped by U.S. investors.
resources for solar, hydro, oil, gas, coal and geothermal power. Not surprisingly, Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of Mines and Energy asserts in five years’ time the sector will boom, as long as it can secure the right investment. “The biggest challenges that the country faces are financing and qualified professionals who bring the foreign investment that is crucial for the development of the sector,” he says.
Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of Mines and Energy
Recording impressive year-on-year growth averaging 11% over the past five years, the country of 80 million people is prepar- A country in motion ing to maintain that percentage, at worst, or double it at best, by Yet despite the challenges, things are moving, and at pace. A 2015 with the launch of a five-year growth and transformation universal electricity access program has been launched to inplan. The development blueprint, which has been endorsed by crease the numbers of towns and villages with electricity from Ernst and Young, will set Ethiopia firmly on the fast track to 41% to 50% within five years. Meheret Debebe, CEO of Ethiobecoming a middle-income country, as it triggers fresh waves pian Electric Power Corporation says: "In the last five years, our annual connection rate has grown to 350,000 customers of investment into the country. Enjoying his fourth term in power after elec- per annum and we plan to electrify 1,700 towns and villages a tions in May 2010, Prime Minister Meles Ze- year over the next five years.” This is significantly more higher nawi cuts a well-known figure on the interna- than the previous levels of 40,000 and 30 respectively. He continues: “Energy demand rose to 25% in 2009/10 so tional stage as a champion for free markets and for Africa, regularly representing the continent we are aggressively expanding our grid to meet that. We would expect demand in the next few years to be around 17%.“ at G8 meetings. Meles Zenawi, Sufian Ahmed, Minister of Finance and Economic DevelIn the last three years, Zenawi has implePrime Minister mented important trade reforms to improve opment, hopes all this activity will redress the common percompetitiveness and expand Ethiopia’s footprint in both regional and global economies, and spearheaded some ambitious construction projects throughout the country. Ethiopia’s natural force “Within this term, we will invest more heavily in infrastructure, particularly electricity from green sources,” he says. EEPCo plans to increase “We want to increase generation from the current 2,000MW the electric power capacity to about 20,000MW. It is very important that we build more from 8,000 - 10,000MW in the roads, rectify our railway system and increase our ICT infracoming 5 years. The goal is structure.” to achieve 100% coverage With an economy resting on services, agriculture and laborall over the country. intensive manufacturing, solid and reliable energy provision will be a crucial factor in Ethiopia’s development. Less than Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation half the population has access to electricity, and neighbors KeAddis Ababa, Ethiopia nya and Sudan are counting on Ethiopia in the future for their Tel:+251 11 155 95 67 Fax:+251 11 551 57 77 energy imports. The country has seen a 900% increase in powwww.eepco.gov.et er production over the last decade and has abundant potential
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
Development Bank of Ethiopia—your development partner. www.dbe.com.et
ception of Ethiopia in the U.S. as a country plagued by famine. “The media still show pictures of a starving baby in a mother’s arms, Ethiopia as it was in the 70s and 80s. I am not saying [poverty or drought] don’t exist still, but the media also needs to highlight the good things that are happening,” he says. “Growth in the last seven years has been really impressive and it can be mostly attributed to agriculture. And unlike the situation in some oil producing countries, this sector is made up of millions and millions of people and everyone benefits.” Making reference to the five-year plan, Minister Ahmed believes Ethiopia will be able to ensure food security by 2015 by doubling its total agricultural capacity and capitalizing on revenues acquired from agro-processing. U.S. investors will be majorly important, the Minister says. “Ethiopia and the U.S. have a very long relationship, spanning more than 100 years and we hope to have a lot of investment from the U.S. in the future. There are many Ethiopians living in the U.S. and there is huge potential for private investment here, particularly in agriculture, tourism, natural resources and agro-processing.” The government has also pledged to grow the country’s private sector exponentially, with widespread privatization in operation and excellent incentives available. Celebrating 100 years in the business in 2010, the Development Bank of Ethiopia provides financing to companies in critical areas of the economy, offering financial assistance to the growing numbers of SMEs and other companies with low-cost long- and medium-term loans. “We are here to fill the gap on market inefficiency,” says the non-profit bank’s CEO Ato Esayas Bahre. “When the market is not efficient enough to cover the priority areas, we step in. If Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation
ETC Connecting Ethiopia to the future!
www.ethionet.et
Speedy, Safe, Reliable & Affordable
Ethiopian Postal Service Head Office P.O. Box 5555 Tel:+251 11 551 5011 Fax:+251 11 551 2999 ems@ethionet.et www.ethiopostal.com
anybody is ready to fill in the gaps —for example, commercial banks are keen to help in some critical areas—we encourage them, but we still find other areas that need attention. Our vision is to see 100% success in project implementation.” Communications services are also growing, with Amare Amsalu, head of the 115-year-old Sufian Ahmed, Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation, Minister of extremely optimistic after growing the num- Finance and Economic bers of mobile and fixed line subscribers from Development one to seven million in recent years. “Now that we can communicate with the rest of the world, we can show them the opportunities we have to offer," he says. "We no longer need to beg for aid; we can show the world our potential and start becoming more independent. There are very big opportunities for FDI in telecoms; companies can build towers here, they can produce equipment, they can invest in fiber optics. Anyone who wants to come and partner with us will provide both jobs and revenues for the country.” The Ethiopia Postal Service is busy implementing new systems to help it improve efficiency and customer satisfaction. In recent years it has brought in home-to-home delivery services, an in-house bus transportation system to deliver letters and packages, a tracking system for parcels, a customs clearance service, and an express global shipping company. Run by company general manager Gidey Gebreyohanis, EPS is actively expanding the number of post offices throughout the country and has begun an aggressive campaign to increase brand awareness in the media and by sponsoring local events.
Request for expression of interest Ethiopian Mineral Development Share Company (EMDSC), a governmentowned company, needs to set up a metallurgical processing plant as an integral part of Kenticha tantalite-columbite concentrate production plant, located 550 kms south of Addis Ababa. The value-added commodities required as an output of the metallurgical process plant shall be: K2 TaF7, K2NbF7, K Salt and optionally Ta2O5 and Nb2O5 powder, Ta and Nb ingot and Ta and Nb wire having adequate purity. The metallurgical pocess plant rated design input capacity shall be 300-350 TPA tantalite columbite concentrate. For this task, EMDSC would like to hire a well-experienced professional firm that can design the process flow sheet, estimate capital and operational cost, specifiy the required equipment units to purchase, set them up to form the whole metallurgical process plant, prepare acceptable tender documents for procuring the different metallurgical process plant units and consumables, supervise the construction of the process plant, etc. Interested applicants should submit their application with non-returnable CVs and copies of credentials to our company to participate in this job and we will then send the Terms of Reference and Instructions to bidders for shortlisted companies. Interested consultants may obtain further information at the address stated below during the office hours between 8 am and 5.30 pm. Expressions of interest must be delivered to this stated address within 30 days of the announcement of this notice. Bids will be open on the 30th day at 3.30pm.
Ethiopian Mineral Development Sharing Company Bole Sub City (Kefle Ketema, Kebele 05) near Saint Gabriel Hospital, P.O. Box: 21463, Ethiopia Phone: +251-11-6-632226 / 632290 / 187478 Fax: +251-11-6-18 71 43 / 632291 eemindut@ethionet.et // eemindvt@ethionet.et by Business Focus www.businessfocus.org.uk