Eight roads, covering 600km will be built in Ethiopia at a cost of 16.3 billion birr over the next three years. The Ethiopian Roads Authority signed agreements last Thursday, with Chinese construction companies, Defense Construction Enterprise, Yencomad Construction and Sur Construction. The roads will be built in Afar, Oromia, Amhara, and Tigray regional states. Out of the eight road projects, five were awarded to Chinese construction companies. ERA Director-General Habtamu Tegegn said the cost will be covered by the government.
More roads
Marathon to assemble Hyundai electric cars in Ethiopia
Marathon Motor Engineering announced that it will assemble the first Hyundai electric cars in Ethiopia in a year.
The car dubbed ‘Hyundai Ioniq’ is a compact hatchback with a trio of powertrains. It can charge from home or work, and never stop for gas. On a single charge, the IONIQ electric can travel up to a 200 kilometer range of emissions-free driving.
Melkamu Assefa, CEO and shareholder of Marathon Motor Engineering told Capital that the car model may be changed.
“So far the model we agreed to with South Koreans is ‘Ionic’ but we may change that when we start assembling the car here.
He added that Maratahon is also considering importing a hydrogen fuel cell car after the launching of the ionic car.
Recently Hyundai Group (HMG) started selling a hydrogen fuel cell.
Hyundai Group (HMG), the massive industrial conglomerate that owns Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, is investing £5.5billion in a plan that will boost production of hydrogen fuel cell systems to 700,000 units annually by 2030.
500,000 of those units will be hydrogen-fuelled commercial and passenger vehicles. HMG expects demand for such vehicles to reach 2 million units a year by then, and demand for hydrogen fuel cells more generally to reach 5.5 to 6.5million units a year. That’s massive.
Only recently Hyundai Motor released the Nexo – a hydrogen-powered SUV based on the group’s first dedicated fuel-cell platform. Over the next few years, HMG says it will keep developing the Nexo’s powertrain to “upgrade and diversify its fuel-cell system lineup, so it can respond to demands from various industry sectors”.
In other related news Marathon’s assembly plant which had been under construction for the last one and half years has started assembling Hyundai cars in Ethiopia.
The company which has been selling cars for the last 10 years has invested half a billion birr to construct the plant which lies on 10,000 square meters of land.
The plant, which was built by Assefa General Contractor, has the capacity to assemble 10,000 cars per year. It employs 70 people now but eventually 1,000 will work there.
Athlete Haile Gebrselassie, shareholder of the company, said that the assembling of the cars is good success of the company as well for the county.
“When we assemble in here we will cut the demand of our foreign currency in addition to creating jobs for people.’’
Marathon Motor Engineering, Plc. is a joint venture between the great long distance runner Haile Gebrselassie and other three Ethiopians. The company was founded in 2009. Currently it has five show rooms in the country.
Trade competition bench stuck for two months
The Trade Practices and Consumers ‘Protection Authority’s administrative court ceased functioning for more than two months because one judge resigned. A proclamation stipulates that director of the TCCPA should report in a timely manner to the Ministry of Trade which should then alert the Prime Minister who is responsible for appointing the judge.
The former judge, named Bruh Gemeda, went to the United Kingdom for school which was paid for by the UK government, he agreed to serve for two years after leaving the UK program. He applied for 30 days leave on September 11 so that would have meant he was expected to return on October 10.
Normally Judges are not granted annual leave and instead compensated financially for their unused leave, employees told Capital. Labor law entitles them to annual leave but the bench does not have enough judges to hear cases when one is missing.
“We sent the issue to the ministry of trade immediately when the judge resigned, and the Ministry informed the Prime Minister’s Office,” said Michael Teklu, Director of the TCCPA. “When the new Minister was appointed the issue was dropped because it wasn’t presented to her. We talked to her last week and we hope the judge will be appointed soon.” He also recalled that two letters were written to the ministry in addition asking them about the matter verbally.
Capital spoke via telephone with Fetlework Gebregziabher, Minister Trade, who said she is not familiar with the matter, as she was appointed less than a month ago.
Michael said the establishment proclamation is under an amendment. They may be able to appoint another judge after a study is done however the authority has not considered the issue yet.
Relocation issue hinders Sheik Khojale Palace renovation
After being unable to relocate 43 houses siting in the old Sheik Khojale Palace, located near St. Rafael Church, people are challenging the Addis Ababa Cultural and Tourism Bureau and asking it to renew this old palace which was constructed 112 years ago.
The palace which lies on 1,800 square meters is currently in a dangerous situation. Some of the walls of the two G+1 story buildings have been cracking because there has not been repairs or maintenance done on the palace.
Initially there were three buildings in the palace, but one of the buildings was demolished some decades ago because people who lived nearby were careless.
Among the 43 houses found in the palace, 13 of them were constructed illegally, and the others are Kebele houses where the residents pay a small monthly fee to the government. There is also a public school located there.
In the last fiscal year the cultural bureau paid 2.4 million birr to a local consulting company to study the renovation of three historical houses found in the city including the Sheik Khojale Palace.
But the Gulelle Sub City who is in confusion to give relocation house for the illegal houses is slowing the renovation study of the palace.
Dereje Seyum, heritage expert at the Cultural Bureau told Capital that unless the houses are fully relocated to another place the study can’t proceed and thus an answer as to how to reconstruct the palace can’t be given.
“The study should have been completed last year and reconstruction works should have strated this fiscal year but people are living in the houses and we can’t conduct a study in this situation. We have written letters many times to the concerned body to relocate the houses but no action has been done so far to help our work. Relocating the houses is not our mandate and we will wait till the houses are fully removed from the palace to carry out our study’’ Dereje said.
According to Dereje the palace will be a museum or an art gallery.
Sheik Khojale was governor of Assosa in the times of Minelik II. Khojale Hassan as governor of the whole territory of Benishangul and began ruling by incorporating the domains of the two local Muslim leaders; Khomasa and BeniShangul. In 1925, during the regency of Ras Teferi, Khojale was summoned to Addis Ababa because leaders of the central government wanted him to ensure his allegiance to them Sheik Khojale of Benishangul tried to coordinate his people to resist the fascist Italian forces.
Sheik Khojale had initially submitted to Italians and tried to maintain his power by showing his allegiance to the conquering force. But once the Italians made it clear that they had no intention of ruling the country with involvement of Ethiopian nobles, Khojale changed his mind and began to resist the Italians.
