Ministry of Finance issued an invitation for expression of interest today to partially privatize Ethio Telecom. The company which will win the bid will own 40% of the equity share capital of Ethio Telecom and join the Ethiopian telecom market.
The partial privatization advertisement posted on the website of Ministry of Finance states that the expression of interest could be submitted until 20 December 2022. Deloitte Consulting Limited is appointed as transaction advisor by the Ministry for advising on the privatization process.
In a bid to identify the third telecommunication company that will join the two current active companies in Ethiopia, Ethio Telecom and Safaricom Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Communication Authority (ECA) will hold a consultation that will last from November 16 to December 16, 2022 on the website of the ECA.
It is recalled that the Ministry of Finance said it has decided to postpone its plan of partial privatization of the state-owned Ethio Telecom back in March 2022.
In its statement the Ministry indicated that “…given the recent developments and fast-moving macroeconomic changes both globally and a country perspective, the Government of Ethiopia has chosen to postpone the privatization process”.
Gov’t to privatize 40% of Ethio telecom
Over 327,000 visitors flock EIMA 2022
The 2022 edition of EIMA international reached its highest ever result, with 327,100 visitors, of whom 57,300 from abroad. During the five days of the exhibition – an event of worldwide importance for the agricultural machinery sector, organised by FederUnacoma – the number of visitors exceeded the record (317,000) set in the 2018 edition, before the crisis caused by the pandemic.
The Bologna exhibition thus overcame the most critical two-year period for trade exhibition events (2020-2022), brought about first by the health emergency and then by the difficult economic situation, and strengthened its leadership in the trade exhibition landscape. Foreign visitors, from every continent, accounted for 18% of the total attendance, and 80 official delegations of economic operators organised thanks to the ICE Agency animated business meetings in the Foreign Delegations Pavilion that was specially set up.
“The success of EIMA confirms the growing interest in new-generation agricultural technologies to meet the food needs of a global population that will grow by almost a billion within the next ten years – declared FederUnacoma president Alessandro Malavolti – and confirms how in every region of the world, work is being done to innovate cultivation methods, seeking to make scientific and sustainable use of water resources and soil fertility”. “In this perspective – added Malavolti – a trade exhibition like EIMA has an important mission also for the years to come”.
“The result of this edition is the result of a very rigorous monitoring that we carry out as a Federation, trying to offer manufacturers and the trade public increasingly efficient trade exhibition services – added FederUnacoma General Manager Simona Rapastella – and it is also the result of the substantial investments we have made to promote the exhibition and to involve all strategic targets”. “Additional investments were made by BolognaFiere to improve the structures of the exhibition centre concluded Rapastella – which will continue in the coming years in step with a show that has a great present and a great future”.
The next edition of EIMA International is already set for 6 to 10 November 2024, but a major event for agricultural machinery will also take place next year, with the return of Agrilevante by EIMA, the exhibition dedicated to mechanisation for crops in the Mediterranean area, which will be held at the Bari exhibition centre from 5 to 8 October 2023.
Italian Cuisine Week
The Italian Embassy in Addis Ababa celebrated The Week of Italian Cuisine in the World.
This is an annual themed event, launched by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and produced by Slow food. Returning for the 7th year, the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World highlight the key elements of the model for food and wine production which are Respect for knowledge and traditions, Sustainability, and innovation.
The major aims of this initiative are to publicize regional food, wine, and tourism itineraries, rediscover villages through traditional food production, promote the Mediterranean diet and its ingredients, raise the profile of products with protected and controlled designations of origin, combat the phenomenon of “Italian-sounding” products and encourage the internationalization of Italian cooking and hospitality training.
Xylexpo
On October 15, the 27th edition of Xylexpo, the biennial international exhibition of technology for the wood and furniture industry, closed with great satisfaction after four busy days at the FieraMilano-Rho Exhibition center in Milan, Italy. Satisfaction was tangible from the very start, supported by the desire to restore personal meetings and handshakes, which ultimately translated into positive figures for the exhibition.
Xylexpo 2022 was attended by more than 16 thousand unique visitors, a figure that reaches up to over 22 thousand visits. Out of 16 thousand unique visitors, 12,356 were recorded at the entrance turnstiles. For the first time this year, the biennial exhibition of wood and furniture technology was held concurrently with the digital communication show and, leveraging a much more effective synergy, with the machine tools exhibition. The two events dedicated to manufacturing technology really created a virtuous circle, generating an impact that was immediately clear to the organizers during the exhibition days, and already announced in the preregistration phase, when most visitors had declared their intention to visit the parallel show.
Satisfaction was also supported by the fact that Xylexpo is probably the only post-pandemic exhibition that has achieved a number of unique visitors in line with the last pre-Covid event in 2018. Capital caught up with Piero Borroni, Xylexpo Marketing Officer to talk about the significance of the exhibition. Excerpts;
Capital: What is the significance of this exhibition to the industry?
Piero Borroni: The significance of Xylexpo is very important for the entire wood industry. Xylexpo is probably the only worldwide post-covid event that was able to attract a large number of visitors not only from Italy but also from abroad. We must also not forget that the technologies for woodworking belong to the broader sector of the capital goods industry, a highly developed production system in Italy, and this is a further added value for Xylexpo.
Capital: How do you see the technological advances of Italian companies compared with other countries?
Piero Borroni: In the field of woodworking technologies, Italy is one of the most important producers in the world. The technological supremacy therefore belongs to us by right, because the sector has years of experience behind it in the design of machines and systems, of experimentation, in order to find more and more innovative solutions to be made available to the wood industry.
Capital: When we see Africa, most industrial machines are kind of manual, your machines are cutting edge technology of the wood industry. How can you integrate the two so that you can transfer technology?
Piero Borroni: The integration of manual machines with automated ones can occur when the production volumes of any product, in perspective, can grow, consequently the needs change. But to do this, it is necessary to increase investments.
Capital: How do you see the potential of Africa and specifically East Africa?
Piero Borroni: It is very difficult to make predictions, the potential could also be there, what is strongly needed is above all political, social and economic stability. With these three conditions everything would be much easier.
Capital: When do you think Africa will be your major market?
Piero Borroni: The whole African continent will acquire more and more importance in the long term. The Italian companies that produce wood technologies, to a small extent, already export to some countries, especially in the African Mediterranean belt and some already sell in the sub-Saharan area.
Capital: What is Africa’s role in your wood industry?
Piero Borroni: Africa mainly supplies raw material, that is wood to be processed, but also supplies semi-finished wood products in quantity. What we all hope is that it will also become a market for finished wood products, hence furniture, only in this way can the entire continent be able to define itself as a large mature market.
Capital: Climate change is a major issue nowadays, how are you dealing with it?
Piero Borroni: Every industrial sector of whatever country it belongs must do its part so that the climatic upheavals do not get the better of man. In our sector the eyes are mainly focused on the development of systems that optimize production cycles, so as not to waste raw material unnecessarily and on plants that produce energy, using wood waste, which pollute less and less.
