Elon Musk might say some crazy stuff, but he’s right about at least one thing: his electric vehicles have changed the world. When the Model S launched in 2012, it was the first long-range, widely desired electric vehicle, and mainstream automakers have been struggling to catch up ever since.
Even though Ethiopia is late in catching up with the rest of the world, the first Tesla Model S entered the Ethiopian market through a car importer, Kahinos, this week. With an electric motor dedicated to each of the front and rear axles, the Model S offers full-time all-wheel drive no matter which version you choose.
Tesla
City looking for partnership with private banks
The Addis Ababa City Administration commences working with private banks as optional financial service providers in its public service operation.
The city administration stated that it is interested to include the private financial firms as partners besides the public bank, which is the only option for the government related works with financial issues.
Currently the city administration is working on some municipality related fees like traffic penalties with selected banks as a beginning.
According to sources in the city administration, the city administration is working with Bank of Abyssinia, Dashen Bank, Awash Bank, Cooperative Bank of Oromia and one more bank as a pilot project and expected to expand its partnership with others.
Abe Sano, President of Oromia International Bank and head of Ethiopian Bankers Association (EBA), appreciated the initiative that the city administration embarks. But he said that it is late.
“There is a principle under the government that the government is working with public banks but it is a mistake and unusual anywhere in the world” Abe told Capital.
“These are public entities that work for the public but the government is not working with them,” experts on the financial sector, who criticized the government on its decision to exclude private financial firms without concrete reasons, told Capital.
Mid July last year in a meeting with Takele Uma, Deputy Mayor of Addis Ababa, representatives of the private banks raised the issue that the government shall consider private banks as partners and include them to its operation like the public bank.
That immediately got green light from the Mayor.
The Mayor said that the city administration wants to work with private banks on services like tax collection and other service payments under the city.
However he claimed that the Federal Finance Administration Proclamation is a barrier that should be considered for the city or to be revised or give a mandate for the city administration to work with private banks.
However the city administration lately understood that the proclamation is only applicable for the federal government.
The latest relation of the city administration with private banks is stated as public private partnership (PPP) by some experts, while the sector actors argued that it could be more than PPP and should not be related with partnership.
“It could not be associated with PPP but it is the issue of basic service for the society not partnership. We don’t need to have PPP for transaction of finance. The society shall operate on the facilities that it is comfortable with it since it is basic service,” Abe told Capital.
At the same time Dereje Zebene, President of Zemen Bank appreciated the initiative of the Mayor.
He told Capital that it is initial for partnership but it should not be related with PPP since it is crucial and more than that.
Both financial sector leaders agreed that the government would include other payment system besides the current initiative that the city administration commenced.
“The source of payment system is the government problem that it only wanted and forces to work with the government banks that should be changed,” Abe added.
Collection tax via financial firms is considered one of the ways to improve doing business in a given country and Ethiopia is expected to expand it and use a direct system in the settlement of the tax at the bank account instead of coming with a receipt or CPO.
In related development, on Thursday January 16 the Mayor and members of the Ethiopian bankers Association met at Hyatt Regency Hotel the discus on issues that both sides want to be improved.
One of the main topics the bankers raised is the land issue that the city administration provided for them to erect high rise buildings at the heart of the city but that they are facing some challenges to secure plots that are mainly located around National Bank Ethiopia.
Sources told Capital that the problems might differ from one bank to another. For instance some of the plots has their own disputes or not relocated properly and other plots might not be ample as per the deal, according to sources.
Meanwhile Abe confirmed that the main purpose of the meeting is to talk about the problems regarding plots he did not explain further.
At the same meeting Takele has also expressed his administration’s interest that he wants the private banks to facilitate finance for the administration employees to access their own houses. Experts stated that this would be the second step of partnership between private banks and public institution.
New bill in process for real estate developers
A draft real estate development and marketing proclamation will ban foreign investors from selling unfinished property.
The draft proclamation that is expected to be tabled to the parliament this year has also put assurances developers give for buyers.
The country does not have a real estate proclamation and at the same time the sector has been vulnerable for cheating and several abuses including significant delay and price hike than the original deal.
Due to lack of formal regulation and preconditions the sector is stated as a risky business deal between developers and clients, while in the past few years some actors who preferred to undertake the construction before selling, comparatively transfer the property in a better time frame and has changed the attitude on the sector.
According to the draft proclamation that Capital secured, local developers are allowed to sell houses with zero construction stage. However it has indicated that the non-Ethiopian investors should finalize the project before sells.
The draft proclamation article 8 sub article 2 indicated that the developer should have land deed and construction permit, before starting a registration of clients and collects down payment.
The proclamation article 6 sub article 3 stated that foreign real estate developer will only be registered if it allocates more than USD 20 million in capital and could construct 10,000 houses and of the stated houses 40 percent will be allocated to low income people.
Moreover the foreign real estate developer will get a license if it would cover the foreign currency required for the import of products under the construction period and would not transfer out 60 percent of its profit for 10 years.
The draft proclamation has also given a third option for foreign developers to be registered in the sector. It stated that the developer will be registered if it substitutes import materials.
According to article 6 sub article 2 of the proclamation, even though the developer is not Ethiopian but would not transfer its profit from the development to another country will be considered as Ethiopian developer.
Developers that would construct more than 50 houses should be registered under the real estate proclamation.
The draft proclamation also indicated that the land allocation for real estate development in cities shall be managed under the lease law. It has also added that plots shall be given on allotment if the developer constructs 10,000 houses in Addis Ababa, develop more than 2,000 houses around a town that have industrial park, or other cities with demands more than 1,000 houses.
It added that special tender will be applicable if the developer develops from 1,000 to 10,000 houses in Addis Ababa, from 500 to 2,000 in industry park areas, and 50 to 1,000 houses in other towns.
The proclamation has also forced developers to give assurance for their developments.
Article nine of the proclamation stated that the developer should give assurance and get permit from relevant government office to sell houses.
On the draft proclamation only local investors or others that are considered as local investors are allowed to sell houses before the.
According to article 9 sub articles 1 local developer should get permission from relevant government body to start sell on unconstructed estates. The relevant body will hold the land deed and other documents until the houses are transferred for clients, according to sub article 2 of the same article.
Sub article 3 has also added that the relevant government body will follow the management of money that is collected from home buyers by the real estate developer, while further regulation will be ratified regarding the release of the money that is deposited on the bank account by buyers.
The real estate development proclamation has been under discussion some few years ago but the ratification process did not happen so far.
According to the information that Capital obtained from Ministry of Urban Development and Construction the draft proclamation is expected to be approved by the parliament this year.
OWNING NOTHING
The hypocrisy/phoniness of the modern world system has no bound. The global status quo has a serious problem conveying actual facts and information to the global public at large, especially when these facts/truths are not to its liking. On the other hand, when we have brave souls who dare speak/talk the truth and communicate unadulterated information to the global sheeple (human mass), they end up being persecuted, in one form or another. Dubious allegations and indictments are concocted to undermine, ostracize and convict these individuals. Amongst the well-known truth telling individuals in the rich countries, we can mention, amongst many others, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning. Since such kosher elements in our part of the world (poor nations) are too many to mention, we leave it to the almighty to have mercy on them, both here and in the heavenly world hereafter! See the articles next column, on pages 33,36 & 38 .
The prevailing global lies are not only about current events or some insignificant temporal matters. These lies also involve foundational principles that underlie the core of the world system in which we live. For instance, the global economic system is based on the shallow and stupid assumption of infinite growth at any cost! This assumption is not only fallacious, but is actually the very germ or seed from which all destructive activities (both to humans and nature) sprout. Moreover, the existing financial system that is borne of fractional reserve banking (FRB) that is running the world system is a bona fide criminal undertaking, sanctioned by the highly compromised capital-favoring inter-states system. In the beginning, the state used to be the protector of collective social existence. It was the prerogative of the state to protect humanity from activities that were deemed damaging and dangerous to collective social existence.When certain unholy inclinations or organizations (within a society) seem to creep up, the state, which was then called the ‘anti-market’, was obligated to take swift action to thwart off the various ascending harmful tendencies. Unfortunately, the modern state today is fully under the thumb of transnational capital, hence is not capable of protecting, neither the citizens nor the larger natural world, from the prevailing greed-propelled modern world system. It is time to take charge; the modern nation state is not and will not be willing to take decisive measures against the prevailing destructive system, no matter what the damage! See Smith’s article on page 36.
Here is another major distortion of fact/truth that dominates the existing world order. This concerns the world of finance. When banks lend individuals money, the banks usually demand some kind of collateral from borrowers. Usually such an arrangement doesn’t apply to the big players of the system, like banks, hedge funds, powerful states, etc. etc. If the borrower gets into trouble, the collateral ends up being possessed by the banks/lenders. In other words, when the going is good, the banks get their interest payments. When the going is bad, the banks foreclose on the collaterals. Lenders/banks are covered both ways. The situation is like ‘heads you lose’ and ‘tails I win’! Therefore and frankly speaking, anyone with loans, mortgage or otherwise, cannot in all honesty claim to own the underlying real assets that are supposedly under their names. Even the notion of equity, which is intended to signify ownership (at least a portion of it), doesn’t really hold water when conditions start to significantly deteriorate. Even if a house that is owned clean and clear (of all loans), the owner of the asset is still potentially liable to government taxes, property or otherwise. If the owner cannot pay the ever-increasing taxes, dues or fees, etc., then the state has the legal rights (formal) to confiscate the asset/property in question! Given all these visible and hidden obligations, can one really say that one owns this or that asset?
What the above scenario illustrates is this; at the end of the day, it is the banks that own all and sundry! The rest of us are mere dreamers, hoping that one day everything will turns out right, with the hope that one day we make good and increase our meager wealth to reach the richness of the .01%! Now this is not the end of it. Just like the local/international banks/lenders (some and tchnically) own anything & everything in a given economy, there is a big bank that owns anything & everything in the world. This is the one bank Nielson talks about. This is the real mega bank that owns around 40% of the world GDP! Unlike us, this bank doesn’t go around boasting that it owns 40% of the world. In fact, it goes out of its way to hide what it actually and truly owns, at least within the framework of global laws. It is only us, small time capitalist cravers, who go on boasting about our tiny wealth, which of course in nothing more than a disguised gratuity of the ‘One Bank’! So what is to be done? For a start, the global sheeple has to start reacting against the obvious destructive measures that are continuously pushed by transnational capital. Secondly, the global mass has to come to terms with its own reality and must stop worshipping the useless make-believe world of the cunny ‘deep state’, as exemplified by the likes of Hollywood, et al. The very belief/recognition that humanity is inherently capable of devising a more saner and equitable world system to benefit all, including the natural world, must remain, per force, as the real specter of the 21st century!
‘There have been three great inventions since the beginning of time: fire, the wheel, and Central Banking.’ Will Rogers. Mimicking Kissinger’s dictum on oil, here is a more comprehensive maxim. “Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.” Good Day!
