Due to its ancient history, remnants of past civilizations, diverse cultures and natural beauty, Ethiopia has the potential to be a must-see destination for tourists. Yet, despite its abundance of historic and natural attractions, the country has not benefitted from a robust tourism industry. EBR Staff Writer Berihun Mekonnen explores that limitations on tourist site development and service deliveries, poor infrastructure, and weak promotion and marketing are hindering the prospects of making Ethiopia a world-renowned tourist destination.
Government Officials and manufacturers have recently held discussions on the market challenges of metals and engineering companies particularly (car assemblies) in Ethiopia. The government blames the society for its impaired attitude about local products while the manufacturers accuse the government of taxing their products twice which contributes to their inability to compete. But the public says if people want to understand the culprit behind their rejection of new, locally assembled cars for much older, used imports one need look no further than the quality of the vehicles, access to maintenance and delivery of spare parts. In fact many people were at first proud of owning a locally made car, however they soon became jaded, writes Berihun Mekonnen, EBR’s editor-in-chief.
Recently it has been common to see a long queue of vehicles around petrol stations in Addis Ababa searching for fuel, particularly gasoline, commonly known as ‘benzene’. People including taxi drivers and other private vehicle owners run here and there filling up their tanks if they get lucky. The lineups near the stations have exacerbated the high traffic jams that are already annoying people throughout the city.
The saying; ‘a burnt child dreads the fire’ applies to many people who have given their money to real estate developers in Ethiopia because they have been burned repetitively.
More than a few legally registered real estate developers have sold out the land, they have leased from the government to build homes, illicitly, pillaging millions of birr in profits in a villainous process. Then, several other developers who have made promises and deals to deliver finished houses were not able to finish the job on time. They made their clients wait in vain and incur extra costs. Still today, there are some real estate companies that collected pre-payments over seven years ago and haven’t delivered the houses yet.
For Americans, the beginning of 2014 marked the launch of a new healthcare system popularly known as “Obamacare”. This health insurance coverage is expected to cut the number of uninsured in half, or about 25 million people, in the next 10 years. Under the much publicized scheme, the US government plans to reshape the healthcare system by allowing as many as seven million people to buy insurance and 8.7 million new beneficiaries to enroll in 2014 alone.
Many Ethiopian migrants, who send money for their relatives and families from abroad, previously paid an average of 12 Pct of the remitted amount for the money transferring agents. Sending remittances to Ethiopia, which is one of the top 10 remittance receiving countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, has been costly though the amount varies depending on the remitted amount, the service chosen and the destination. The cost of a money transfer for an average transaction in Ethiopia ranges from as low as around 1 Pct to a maximum of 20 Pct of the amount remitted. The most expensive are the services of global money transferring companies.
Neither be a lender nor a borrower, for money you lose both your friend [the borrower] and the money itself” has been one of the famous lines from William Shakespeare’s plays. That was many, many years ago. The game has changed now. Not only people, but countries, including the richest ones on earth, from the United States to Japan, from Australia to the UK, borrow a huge amount of money. They have even established institutions that specialize in lending money in massive amounts. Countries borrow money from these institutions and provide loans to one another.
It has been a decade since Ethiopia applied and began preparations to become a member of the world’s trade governing body, the World Trade Organization (WTO). It submitted the application for the accession in January 2003. Since that time it has accomplished some of the basic requirements and negotiations to be able to ascend. It is expected to complete the negotiations and be a full member as speculated in the Growth and Transformation plan (GTP) by 2015.
Since the 16th century the place located in western Ethiopia known as Bela Shangul, meaning “Rock of Shangul” named after a sacred stone found in the mountainous area of the present Benishangul Gumuz Region, is legendary for its vast area of fertile land suitable for agricultural production. The region was also the place where the Berta people originally settled when they arrived to Ethiopia.
Footballers in France will hope for a winning strike of a different kind this December when they protest over a controversial super tax levied by the socialist government. Back in 2012, the now French President, François Hollande campaigned for the election promising to tax top earners with 75Pct income tax. The 75Pct tax rate was initially to be paid by those earning over EUR one million a year. After protests by top French executives and prominent personalities such as Gérard Depardieu, a French actor, film-maker, businessman and vineyard owner, the government changed the law so that it would be payable by the companies offering such salaries. This show cases how far progressive tax rate can go.
