Ethiopia calls on global partners to invest in recreational development on the islands on the artificial lake formed behind the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed pointed out that the dam height has now reached at least 600 meters above sea level at the center up from 575 meters from a year ago.
At the launching event of the third water filling at the GERD on Friday August 12, Abiy said that the river, which the PM describes as a gift from God, has become a global development hub which bears enormous potential.
He said that the artificial lake on the Abay River has about 70 islands which can serve as recreational destinations. He invited global partners to be part of different recreational developments at the site that is suitable for hiking, fishing and other entertainment, “the world must be ready to use it and invest here.”
“We Africans have endorsed the continental economic integration to which the project allows us to share our resources with other Africans in realizing our long term vision of powering the grid and creating prosperity on the continent,” he added.
Noting that Abay is a natural resource given for Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt, the PM underlined that many works can be done that would benefit not only the three downstream countries but also other states, if they use it properly.
“It should be understood that the river, which is a free gift given by God for the three downstream countries, must be utilized properly by working together,” he said whilst calling on the co-states to work together for mutual benefit and shared development strategies on the resource.
Abiy also said that the civil works that were conducted in the past one year have created the opportunity to catch up to 22 billion cubic meters of water.
On Friday he disclosed that the project has achieved the third water filling.
Kifle Horo, Project Manager of GERD, said that since the reform period that took correction on the project handling, the hydraulic steel structure works have been accomplished which allowed the central part of the dam construction to increase from 25 meters to 100 meters, while the left and right wing have expanded to 145 meter and 111 meters.
“The civil work and electro mechanical work has been accomplished by 95 and 61 percent respectively which when combined brings the total accomplishment to 83.3 percent,” he said, adding, “in the coming up to two and half years the project will be fully finalized.”
According to the Project Manager, despite several challenges in the past few years the project has continued to attain massive successes.
In February, the first generation was introduced which was then followed by the second unit, unit 9, official power production on Thursday August 11. The two turbines that are currently operating have a generating capacity of 375 megawatts.
Currently, spiral case installation works at unit 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, and 16 is being undertaken.
PM rallys global investors to create recreational sites at GERD
Steel, rebar importers bend law to evade tax
Sector actors in the steel industry claim that finished products are flowing into the country disguised as raw materials taking advantage of the duty free scheme under the cover for investment. The regulatory body has disclosed that it is taking the appropriate measures on the illegal actors.
It can be recalled that when the reformist government took power one of the measures it took was pausing the import of commodities under the cover of investment through duty free scheme.
However, experts who closely follow the steel industry and construction sector argue that despite such activities being halted as of about four years ago, the rebar and other steel products are now being imported in a duty free scheme under the cover for investment, “while significant portion of the commodity imported in duty free are injected into the market.”
They said that the behavior has been observed in the past few months but the trend has now expanded. Experts on the construction industry claimed that such products are sold without receipt, since it is illegally smuggled to the market, “it makes this difficult for contractors to get receipts for the product they buy.”
Besides that, the sector actors argued that the rebar contraband has picked up pace with its main channel stemming from the eastern part of the city.
“The other dangerous behavior that we have been informed of is that finished steel products are being imported under the document of billets or scrap,” they added.
They argued that illegal importers are using the changed harmonized code to import the finished construction materials, “This further affects the local industry besides bypassing the government import levy.”
“The import customs duty is almost minimal when importing raw materials, which is far from the case for finished goods. Thus, illegal importers are using improper documents to steal from customs duties,” experts explained.
They said that the illegal actors misguide government with regards to import of raw materials.
“Data may show that the volume of raw material import is very high since the harmonized code document shows it is the import of input for manufacturing industries, but in actual sense the commodities are finished and directly channeled to the market,” one of the sector actors elaborates.
As he described, such behavior creates false narrative on the sector development and expands the tax evasion.
“Currently steel industries are operating below one fifth of their capacity but the import and the foreign currency allocation goes for finished materials, contrabandists, and for those who abused the privilege the country facilitates,” he added.
They advised the government to be alert and stringent in mitigating this alarming issue.
Mule Abdissa, Chief of staff, Customs Commissioner Office, said that regarding the duty free scheme, the government has a strong stand, while special but rare permits are given by the relevant government body, which is the Ministry of Finance.
“In the past, the duty free privileges were significantly abused due to that the government doesn’t allow such kinds of mischief to happen again. However, some exceptional permits do exist,” he told Capital.
Regarding the contraband, he accepted that steel is one of the contraband commodities that the Commission is closely following.
Tegene Derese, Intelligence and Contraband Follow up at Customs Commission, recalled that contraband is damaging the country’s economy and affects the hard currency earnings and to this end government has drawn a line through which the higher body is tackling the issue.
He added in collaboration with relevant bodies the Commission has achieved significant performance in the ended budget year, “but the impact is still there.”
He said that misbehavior to import finished goods under raw material documents is being seized and some others are under investigation.
“The case is not only aligned to steel,” Tegene told Capital.
He insists that those who have information are supposed to share with the commission since it takes concerted efforts to capture the culprits.
WorldVeg holds consultative workshop on bio-pesticide adoption
World Vegetable Center Ethiopia held a consultative workshop on bio-pesticide regulation on August 9, 2022, with participants from both private and government sides engaging in the workshop discussing on policy gaps and bottlenecks in production, introduction and application of bio-pesticides as an IPM component.
“Even though through time we are seeing changes in the agriculture sector, yet the vegetable sector is backward than others, one of the problems is finding eco friendly bio pesticides,” said Webetu Bihon, country representative of World Vegetable Center to Ethiopia, indicating that introducing and promoting the production of local eco-friendly pesticides using local plants as a mandatory solution.
“Few have been formally recommended pesticides and the ones being used in Ethiopia are imports from Kenya and Holland,” Webetu explained.
As indicated on the session, Bio- led management of pests’ coverage is also small but gradually increasing in the ornamental sector.
“Provided they are applied correctly, bio-pesticides can provide excellent control of pests and have a host of other positive attributes that surely make them the weapons of choice for the future sustainable pest control; it also has a potential to expand greatly as products are improved and better methods for using them in IPM systems are developed,” the county representative underlined.
As pest’s importance will increase with the current and the future state of agriculture in Ethiopia, the session recommended public institutions, donors, NGOs, actors to support the ways and means of commercialization and use of bio-pesticides and also to place policy, regulations, directives development and implementation that promotes bio-pesticides and minimizes the use of synthetic pesticides.
