Consider the first impression in businesses like your first love-you rarely forget them. And most of the time it boils down to simple, yet very important gestures. Business cards are at the pinnacle of this first impression because that is the first personification of you and your company.
Knowing how to properly mingle and connect with people is an important part of the professional presence and business etiquette. Business card is about business networking and making connections. Some of the worst mistakes at networking events happen to people that don’t understand how to use their business cards.
Even in good financial times, development aid budgets are hardly overflowing. Government leaders and donors must make hard decisions about where to focus their limited resources. How do you decide which countries should get low-cost loans or cheaper vaccines, and which can afford to fund their own development programs?
The answer depends, in part, on how we measure growth and improvements in people’s lives. Traditionally, one of the guiding factors has been per capita GDP – the value of goods and services produced by a country in a year divided by the country’s population. Yet GDP may be an inaccurate indicator in the poorest countries, which is a concern not only for policymakers or people like me who read lots of World Bank reports, but also for anyone who wants to use statistics to make the case for helping the world’s poorest people.
Investment is a vital engine for economic growth and socio economic transformation. It is one of the main considerations for policy makers, whenever economic development is formulated. Investment incentives to be accorded and the details of the laws and regulations governing the application of the investment policy may vary, depending on the time and circumstance or prevailing socio economic dynamics. The same is true for our investment laws including the latest one: investment proclamation number 769 /2012 and regulation number 270/2012.
The story of Africa’s renaissance is not a new one. It is as old as African predicament itself. Ever since the slave trade era and the consequent colonization, Africa has tried to reinvent itself with varying degrees of success. There are many stories of successive generations asserting themselves by resisting and breaking loose from past dominations.
Recent economic development in Africa witnessed impressive economic growth on the continent, averaging above five percent per annum over the last five years. This growth is primarily propelled by accelerating natural resources exports. This places much of the future of Africa’s economic rebound in the fate of mineral rich economies. That may be something of a worry for the sustainability of Africa’s recent growth and economic transformation in the continent.
While celebrating the 50th anniversary of the OAU/AU (Organization for African Unity/African Union), it is imperative to critically examine the actual efforts exerted by member states in establishing and maintaining the continental body. What has come to pass in the history of the organization truly reflects the extent and level of commitment of African statesmen. Whatever credit is accorded to personalities or governments, or whatever criticisms are directed against these parties, in a way it represents the actual nature of the joint forum Africans have created. In this regard, the process of creating and maintaining the OAU/AU represents the reality on the ground and demonstrates what Africans have managed to accomplish. Here a brief attempt is made to assess Ethiopia’s role in all this.
The Golden Jubilee celebration of an institution like the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and later on the African Union (AU) is special event. For Africans and non-African partners, it has a greater public importance. It offers an occasion for celebration, but also a unique opportunity for critical introspection and collective reflection on the journey of Africa in the past half century. More crucially, such an opportunity needs to be seized to set a clear vision for Africa, craft a common and widely shared mission to realize this vision and mobilize the necessary commitment and resources to implement it.
New discoveries of natural resources in several African countries – including Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, and Mozambique – raise an important question: Will these windfalls be a blessing that bring prosperity and hope, or a political and economic curse, as has been the case in so many countries?
Alemayehu Geda (Prof.)
Abebe Mulu
Bill Gates
Mulu Solomon
Belete Belachew
Mehari Taddele
Joseph E.Stiglitz