Mr. Speaker, I rise as the Chairman of the Ghana Ethiopian Parliamentary Friendship Association to make this statement to commemorate the national day of the People of Ethiopia.
In the spirit of inter Parliamentary cooperation and the promotion of intra African democracy
Parliamentary Associations were set up by this Parliament to foster friendships with sister parliaments and as platforms for knowledge sharing and the exchange of ideas.
Mr. Speaker, 28h May of every year is the national day for the people of Ethiopia and it marks the anniversary of the overthrow of the Dergue Military Regime in 1991 and the establishment of the federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. The Dergue regime, a military junta ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1987 after ousting Emperor Selassie1.
Mr. Speaker, Ethiopia and Ghana have strong historical relation which goes back to the period of liberating Africa from the yoke of colonialism. Our political leaders of those days, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, played major role in the establishment of the then Organization of African Unity and the present African Union. Since then the two countries have enjoyed excellent diplomatic relations working together to fulfil the objectives of the African Union, particularly committed to the realization of the socio economic transformation of the continent through Agenda 2063, with a view to bringing real difference in the lives and wellbeing of the people of Africa.
As Africa enjoys its longest period of sustained economic growth ever, Ethiopia stands out as one of the Continent’s performers. Ethiopia under its current growth and transformation plan II, envisions to be a middle income country by the year 2025.
Ethiopia, next to Nigeria is the second most populous country in Africa with a population more than 100 million. The country is among the top 5 fastest growing economies in the world and registered a double digit annual growth rate averaging 10.5 for the past 13 years. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report of April 2017, Ethiopia overtakes Kenya as the biggest economy of the East African.
Ethiopia’s GDP purchasing power parity has also increased from approximately 40.76 billion US
Dollars in 2004, to 195.8 billion US Dollars in 2017. This impressive growth rate has been investment in infrastructure, commercialization of agriculture, and the increase in non-traditional exports. Ethiopia has also managed to attract significant foreign direct investment from the world’s emerging economies, such as China, India and Turkey attributed to massive public
The government of Ethiopia continue to commit a larger share of the total budget spending on the growth oriented pro poor sectors such as education, agriculture and food security, water and sanitation, health and road expansion. Ethiopia continue to be a more egalitarian country, Income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient is as low as 0.3 comparing favorably with the average of 0.42 in the low income countries in Africa.
The massive boom in construction activity, from the major infrastructure works of the new road, railways and hydroelectric plants to major housing and commercial developments and a huge expansion in public sector employment have provided many jobs particularly in major towns.
Especially designed support to small and medium sized business have increased incomes more broadly. An impressive infrastructural project currently going on in the country is the building of the USD 5 Billion, 6000 megawatt, Grand Renaissance Dam which is solely funded by
Ethiopians without foreign direct investments, 80% from taxes and 20% from bonds raised from the country’s financial market. The investment when completed is expected to rake in USD 1
Billion annually from the export of Electricity. These are some of the laudable achievements that
Ghana can learn from Ethiopia to solve boost our revenues.
Mr. Speaker, Ethiopia has made great strides in the airline industry and indeed, Ethiopian Airline is the largest and the fastest growing airline in African, having emerged as the top best airline in
Africa for many years including 2018. The Airline, is wholly owned by the state and operates 96 passenger aircraft and freighters with more than 60 fleets on order. It is, de facto, the official airline of the African Union as many of its official travels especially within the continent are scheduled on Ethiopian Airline
Mr. Speaker, this year, our Compatriots suffered a very terrible disaster when one of the aircrafts of their national carrier, Ethiopian Airways, crashed killing all passengers and crew on board
We wish to commiserate with the bereaved families and the entire people of Ethiopia to wish them well in this turbulent time.
On this occasion, we wish to congratulate the people of Ethiopia and extend our warm felicitations to them and urge them on in the fight for stability in their extend our
Long live Ethiopia
Long live Ghana
Long live Ghana-Ethiopia Parliamentary Relations
Most grateful to you Mr. Speaker for this opportunity
