Ethiopia’s Transport Minister Dagmawit Moges said she discussed with two Chinese diplomats on ways of further strengthening bilateral cooperation with an emphasis on railway projects.
The cooperation on railway projects was one of the areas that require strengthened bilateral cooperation among the two countries, said Dagmawit after a meeting with Zhao Zhiyuan, the newly appointed Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, and Liu Yu, Minister-Counselor for Economic and Commercial Affairs of China to Ethiopia.
Ethiopia and China have in recent years developed strong cooperation in the development of the railway sector in the East African country, which includes the successful completion of two major railway projects including the Ethio-Djibouti Standard Gauge Railway and the Addis Ababa Light Railway project.
In September this year, the Ethio-Djibouti railway management disclosed over 51% increase in revenue during the first half of 2020 despite the difficulties brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the railway’s managing entity said on Friday.
The 756-km railway, which officially commenced its commercial operations for both passenger and freight services between landlocked Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa with ports in Djibouti in January 2018, has been instrumental in leveraging transportation needs of Ethiopia from its neighboring Red Sea nation of Djibouti.
Ethiopia, China discuss on enhancing cooperation in railway projects
Increased Testing Needed as Africa Sees Rise in Virus Cases
As a result of holiday gatherings, African officials warn of a resurgence of COVID-19 on the continent and urge increased testing to combat it. The level of testing across the continent is considerably less than what health experts say is needed to effectively control the spread of the disease. Africa makes up about 3.3% of the global total of confirmed virus cases, but this is believed to be just a fraction of the actual cases on the continent of 1.3 billion people. When the pandemic began only two of Africa’s 54 countries had laboratories to test for the disease. Now virtually every one of the continent’s countries can carry out the tests. Together Africa’s countries have conducted at least 25 million COVID-19 tests, with a recent increase of 3%, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. … The distribution of the tests, however, is very uneven. Just 10 countries — South Africa, Morocco, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda and Cameroon — are carrying out more than 70% of the continent’s testing.
Center blames in part management gaps in banks, public institutions for financial crimes
The Ethiopian Financial Intelligence Center (EFIC) said the management gaps in banks and public services providing institutions are causing financial crimes, including illicit financial flows from the country.
The center revealed that Ethiopia is working in collaboration with the 146 member countries of Financial Intelligence Center to recover the money it has been losing illegally.
Financial Crimes Senior Analyst at Ethiopian Financial Intelligence Center, Yonas Mamo partly blamed banks and public services providing institutions for contributing to the financial crimes.
Explaining an instance of money laundering practiced by some, the analyst said “the illegal operators send their relatives to neighboring countries and make them enter the trade system. There they open not only businesses but bank accounts. In that account would be saved money smuggled out of Ethiopia. After some time the person will return to the country as an investor with legal money.”
National Bank resumes changing old banknotes in Tigray
The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has resumed changing old banknotes with the new ones in Tigray regional state.
The bank suspended changing the old currencies in Tigray due to the law enforcement operations carried out in the regional state.
As of this week residents can change their old currencies for the coming 14 days, including on Saturday’s and Sunday’s. As the deadline to change old banknotes for an amount of 100,000 -1.5 million birr was over before the start of the operation, those who have that amount will not benefit from the services resumed. However, those who have an amount of less than 100, 000 birr can change their old banknotes by visiting nearby banks.
NBE urged banks to strictly follow the directives and procedures issued for changing old currencies.
Ethiopia introduced new currency notes, with enhanced security features and other distinctive elements last September.
The new currency notes replaced the 10, 50 and 100 birr notes while an additional 200 birr note was introduced. The 5 birr note remained unchanged and will be turned into coin format.
