The core countries of the prevailing modern world system have tried to secure trade agreements, (bilateral and multilateral) with ‘developing’ nations ever since the last major war came to an end. Negotiations with a view to set up a rule based legally binding trade regime started in the late 1940s. Several negotiating rounds took place in succeeding decades. The various rounds of negotiations culminated by establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995.
Negotiations on various issues still take place under the auspices of the WTO. Coming up with agreements on trade issues are extremely difficult. The powerful use all kinds of tricks and tactics to accomplish their objectives, ranging from outright bribery to direct coercion! The intricacies of trade negotiations also make it very difficult for the general sheeple to follow the debate. Even our trade ministries are not up to the task when it comes to the subtleties of trade issues. If it weren’t for committed civil society organizations, NGOs, etc., African countries would not have been able to hold their precarious positions in certain areas. What is even sad is; the minute a trade ministry seems to develop a semblance of capacity, the powerful countries rush to dismantle the trade negotiating team, mostly by poaching their personnel. The miserably paid African bureaucrat is not going to refuse a fat salary (usually >$100,000) working for the WTO. This is how the lopsided cycle of negotiations takes place in the world of trade between the rich and the poor!
When it comes to negotiations with the poorer nations of the world system, the dominant core countries abundantly employ such tactics as ‘arm twisting’, blackmailing, etc., etc. In 1999, at the 3rd WTO Ministerial in Seattle, the whole façade of the WTO was exposed and the global sheeple became quite aware of the undemocratic ways of the WTO negotiations (green rooms, etc). Since then, the various Ministerial/s came to be regarded with utmost suspicions. Even then the powerful countries still want to bulldoze their ways into the untapped market of the poor, without taking into consideration the miserable situation of the southern people! The powerful countries also have other means by which they can impose their desires on the poor. For instance, the SAP (Structural Adjustment Program) that was put in place in the 1980s (all over) is/was used to pry open the markets of the poor. This strategy was/is handled by the multilateral institutions, mostly the IMF and the World Bank.
The Economic Partnership Agreement is another war-like strategy on Africa’s resources. This is the strategy of the former colonizers, the European Union, to bring Africa back to the fold, so to speak. Here again the discussion to come up with a definite agreement, not only trade, started immediately after the African nations got their ‘flag independence’. The ‘Lome Convention’ was set up in 1975, and through the process of non-stop negotiations (for about a quarter of a century) the ‘Cotonou Agreement’ was agreed upon. The new agreement was signed in 2000, replacing the ‘Lome convention’. Today it is the regime of EPA that is trying to run our lives in Africa.
POLARIZING TRADE REGIMES
Marathon Motor launches first electric vehicle charging station
Marathon Motor Engineering Plc, a pioneer in assembling electric cars in Ethiopia has launched the first electric car charging station and its second model Hyundai Kona SUV electric vehicle.
The launch was held in a ceremony on December 28, 2021 in the presence of different government officials and guests at the premises of Marathon Motor Engineering.
“The electric cars assembled locally could have vital benefit to the country in saving cost and hard currency fee of fuel,” said Melkamu Assefa, managing director of Marathon Motors while speaking on the company’s plan to introduce and expand electric car manufacturing with affordable price to the community by 2025. The company plans to shift 80 percent of its production into electric cars. During the ceremony, Marathon Motors rolled out 20 electric cars with an estimated price tag of up to 3.3 million Ethiopian birr.
The company has assembled more than 14 vehicle models and has already begun to launch different models of Hyundai electric cars in two rounds.
“The National Bank of Ethiopia will try to support those investments that contribute to curbing costs for fuel and cut foreign currency expenses,” said Yinager Dessie (PhD), Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia while speaking at the event. The governor further elaborated that Ethiopia spends about 2.5 billion dollars annually for fuel consumption.
Owned by Ethiopia’s Olympic gold medalist and business tycoon, Athlete Haile Gebreselassie, Marathon Motor Engineering PLC (MME) was founded in 2008 and was officially inaugurate in February 2009 as an importer and distributor of Hyundai passenger, commercial vehicles and genuine parts in Ethiopia. Marathon is the first company to introduce the first fully locally assembled electric car HYUNDIA Ionic in July 2020.
Currently there are about 40 vehicle assembly plants in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, a country with the lowest numbers of cars in the world at 1.1 million, of which half are located in the capital, demand for cars is high. Out of the total number of cars, 219,699 vehicles are small automobiles.
It is certainly not common to see electric cars on Addis roads let alone newly assembled cars.
“Commencement of the new electric cars’ assembly line is aligned with the government’s priority to build a climate-friendly economic growth as the vehicles have zero emission of carbon dioxide,” said the CEO of Marathon Motor.
Addis Ababa hotel owners plea for loan payment extension
Addis Ababa Hotel Owner’s Trade Sectorial Association requests the national bank for a policy decision for commercial banks to extend the loan repayment period.
Ever since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in March 2020, hotels have been facing a drastic fall in room occupancy rates, while the income of businesses involved in the industry dried up due to decline in the number of tourists. Thus the hospitality industry players requested the government for a provocation package that can help them rescue their businesses and retain their staff at these trying times since travel restrictions, flight disruptions, social distancing and lockdown directives have brought down the local hospitality industry to its knees.
Therefore the government decided to support hotel owners and tour operators who sought government assistance to withstand the severe impacts of COVID-19 which brought the hospitality industry to a standstill.
As a result, the government decided to provide loans for the hotel and tourism sector. Accordingly, the government has been able to lend 3.3 billion birr for six months from June 2020, despite the hotels request of 6.6 billion birr for one year.
“Although the government’s move saved the sector at the time, the threat to the hotel sector remains unresolved unless the loan term is extended,” said Aster Solomon, President of the association. Hotels are still in danger if their repayment period is not extended as they already have loans for construction and other purposes other than the Pandemic Rehabilitation Loans.
“Even if lenders understand the problem of hotels and want to extend the repayment period, they will not be able to do so without a directive from the National Bank of Ethiopia,” Aster explained.
As Aster said, after doing the necessary assessments, the association has written and submitted a letter to the National Bank of Ethiopia that shows hotels are facing a national crisis, “To this end we are yet to receive a response,” the president of the association said.
“We have requested the government to avail loans, and postpone the loan repayment in order to keep the hotels afloat,” stated Aster.
“Commercial banks have understood the difficult situation that the hotel and tourism sector has found itself in. Likewise, the Addis Ababa City Tourism Bureau is also working to find a way to support the association,” Aster expounded on the matter.
As the hotel industry, both here and globally continue to recover from the hard hitting pandemic, most if not all hotel industries are operating in nil profits with their revenues dwindling drastically. The hotels are not making profits at this difficult time and are thus not able to repay their loans which could increase the non-performing loan of banks which could result to the closure of hotels.
So it would be commendable if the banks can relieve them of loan repayment, reduce interest, and the government to provide assistance to the hospitality industry and failure to do so can prove catastrophic for the industry.
ZamZam introduces sharia compliant core banking solution
ZamZam Bank discloses that it has become the first financial firm to introduce sharia compliant core banking solution in the country.
The financial firm which became the first full-fledged interest free bank in Ethiopia after securing its operational license late September last year, has held its first annual general assembly and extraordinary meeting last week.
Nasir Dino, Chairperson of the Board of Directors, said that after obtaining the license from National Bank of Ethiopia on September 28, 2020, the bank has been strengthening human resource, organizing the IT project office, developing policies, procedure and strategy in addition to endorsing a president and VPs.
According to the chairperson, major milestones were done to organize the head quarter and branches starting from area selection to implementing pertinent tasks simultaneously in order to speed up the commencement of operations.
He implied that the Sharia Advisory Council members for the bank were carefully selected based on their merit, knowledge and contribution towards the development and expansion of interest free banking.
Nasir reminded that the paid up capital of the bank has reached 1.233 billion birr.
Currently the bank that secured operational license at the end of the first quarter of the 2020/21 financial year has managed to open 20 branches in different parts of the country and managed to gain more than 35,000 customers in few months time.
“Hence the bank is working towards growing it’s paid up capital to 5 billion birr and collecting as much foreign currency as it can,” Nasir added.
On the statement the bank sent to Capital in order to realize the principal focus of the bank which is operational excellence, ZamZam implemented the first sharia compliant core banking solution in the country to ease branch operation and financing activities.
It announced that in the first few month of its operation the bank has managed to establish good relationship and connections with well-known international banks and transfer agents. It has also started swift service that is essential for international trade.
