Presentation of Credentials
(Spain, Panama, Norway, Mauritania, Ethiopia)
First, allow me to extend to you a heartfelt welcome to Canada and to the Citadelle, for this presentation of credentials. I think that it is fitting that we are here at the Citadelle, because this place has such a long and storied diplomatic history, where countries have gathered to discuss vital issues.
It was here, for example, that the Quebec Conference took place in 1943. Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and William Lyon Mackenzie King came here to discuss tactics and strategy for what would be the beginning of the end of the Second World War.
Today, there is such an abundance of opportunity for all of us in our globalized world. And this is essentially what you are here to explore: opportunity. I hope that diplomacy—consisting of mutual respect and understanding, and of the promotion of common values and people-to-people links—will continue as you assume your new roles.
Ambassador Girma Birru will Present His Credentials To The Honorable David Lloyd Johnston Canada’s, Governor-general
The newly appointed Ethiopian Ambassador to US, Mexico and Canada Ambassador Girma Birru will present his credentials to The Honorable David Lloyd Johnston Canada’s, Governor-general on Friday September 21, 2012.
Ambassador Girma on the occasion will re-iterated Ethiopia's continue the desire to enhance the existing ties in the realm of trade and investment to a yet higher level. He further will elucidate that Ethiopia is currently striving and is poised to overcome poverty and enlist itself in the ranks of the middle income nations in the not too distant future through the realization of the on-going Growth and Transformation Plan presently in full gear.
The ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), elected Hailemariam Desalegn as the new chairman of EPRDF, who will automatically be the Prime Minister. The council also elected Demeke Mekonen chairman of the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM) as vice chairman of EPRDF. EPRDF started its regular meeting on Friday 14, September 2012, by conducting a minute of silence commemorating the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The meeting completed on Saturday September 15 elects its chairperson and his deputy.
On Saturday September 15, Bereket Simon Government Communications Affairs head said that the new prime minister will announce his cabinet in the near future. He also said that EPRDF came to a decision to limit the chairman’s term to two. Bereket further added that Hailemariam will be sworn in when parliament starts its session to make his appointment official.
Bereket also said that the two officials are the new generation elites that goes with EPRDF’s succession plan.
Ethiopian Government Forms Company to Develop Oil, Gas Resources
Written by Araya
Thursday, 13 September 2012 20:02
Ethiopian Government Forms Company to Develop Oil, Gas Resources
Araya Belay
Ethiopia’s government will form the Petroleum Development Enterprise that will develop oil and gas resources in partnership with private companies, Mines Minister Sinknesh Ejigu said.The state-owned company will “bolster and enhance development,” Sinknesh said today in a phone interview from the capital, Addis Ababa. A similar public enterprise will be set up to extract mineral resources including precious metals, tantalum and potash, she said.Ethiopia’s government in July canceled five production-sharing agreements with PetroTrans Co. because of a lack of progress by the Hong Kong-based company. Sinknesh said last month the government may develop gas fields in the country’s eastern Somali region after cancelling its contract with PetroTrans, which it had expected to bring financing of as much as $5 billion. The company rejected the termination of its contract.The production-sharing accords were for 10 blocks in the Ogaden area of the Somali region, which include the Calub and Hilala fields with natural gas resources estimated at 4 trillion cubic feet. SouthWest Energy, an Addis Ababa-based company, has said it hopes to strike oil in the Ogaden next year. Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation, produces no oil or gas and was reliant on gold, coffee and other agricultural commodities for export earnings of $3.2 billion last year, according to Access Capital, an Addis Ababa-based research company.The “whole idea” of the enterprise is to work with industry, Sinknesh said. “The private sector is the engine of development, provided they are developmental.”The establishment of the state-owned company has been delayed by the death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi last month, she said.
