In 2021, China launched the Luban Workshop at the Technical and Vocational Training Institute in Addis Ababa with the aim of providing high-end technical skills training to help college students meet the requirements of the emerging global market.
The workshop was established by the Chinese Tianjin University of Technology and Education (TUTE), under the guidance of the Ministry of Education of China. It serves as a center of excellence across four major area industrial sensor technology, mechatronics technology, industrial control technology and industrial robotics technology.
Since its inception in 2021, the workshop has attracted many Ethiopian technicians and teachers to join, facilitating the transfer of much needed knowledge and technologies among Ethiopian youths.
According to Xinhua, since Africa’s first Luban Workshop was launched in Djibouti back in March 2019, a number of African countries such as Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda have launched world-class Luban workshops with the aim of providing a quality vocational training to local people and the country’s youth in particular.
A high-level delegation of the Ethiopian government has arrived in the Lusaka, Zambia ahead of a meeting of the African Union Executive Council, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry said in a statement this evening.
The delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Demeke Mekonnen, includes former Prime Minister HaileMariam Desalegn and other senior government officials.
“Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Demeke Mekonnen has arrived in Lusaka, Zambia to participate in the 41st Ordinary session of the African Union Executive Council,” the statement reads in part.
The two-day meeting will take place from Thursday to Friday and discuss various issues and challenges facing the continent.
“The ministers will also hold a High-Level Reflection and Policy Orientation on evaluation of the First Ten Year Implementation Plan and elaboration of the Second Ten Year Implementation Plan of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 development framework,” the statement added.
Members of the Moyale business community have been urged to comply with the bilateral common market protocols along the Ethiopia-Kenya border.
Marsabit County Commissioner, Paul Rotich called on traders in Moyale to continue fostering good neighborliness and peaceful co-existence with neighboring Ethiopia.
“We assure our citizens that the Moyale-Ethiopia One Stop Border Point is fully operational and has not been closed as misreported by some people. However, we call upon Kenyan traders to abide by the Ethiopian common market protocols to avert any standoffs,” Rotich said.
He was responding to a recent diplomatic row between Ethiopia and Kenya after at least five Kenyan traders’ motorcycles and five saloon cars were impounded by the Ethiopian authorities during a routine operation.
Rotich asserted that the Kenyan and Ethiopian authorities were committed to enhancing peaceful relations between the two countries in a bid to steer the growth of socio-economic and political ties in general.
Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) Marsabit chapter chair, Hajji Adan Gure said that compliance with common market protocols along the Ethiopia-Kenya border was poor, especially on the Ethiopian side, saying this was hindering good bilateral relations.
He said Kenyan traders were routinely frustrated by Ethiopian customs officials, who impose stringent rules and exit formalities that hinder Kenyan motorcyclists and those with Toyota Proboxes from crossing over to Ethiopia to do business.
KNCCI Moyale director, Korr Jillo, also observed that the cold relations between Kenya and Ethiopia had deepened despite several attempts made by the Kenyan authorities to foster good neighborliness.
“We’re concerned about the stringent rules and arbitrary arrests [of] our Kenyan traders by the Ethiopian authorities even though their citizens freely do business on Kenyan land,” Jillo said.
Ethiopia to repatriate 12,000 more citizens from 8 countries including 6 in Africa
The Ethiopian government started the repatriation process for about 12,000 of its citizens from eight countries in African and the Middle East, the Ministry of Foreign affairs said in a statement made on July 14.
In recent months, Ethiopia has stepped up efforts to take back its citizens stranded overseas, mainly in Saudi Arabia, as part of the government’s “citizen-centered diplomacy,” starting with Saudi Arabia where an estimated 750,000 of its citizens are living, with most of them without proper documentations.
Speaking during the Ministry’s bi-weekly briefing held on Thursday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Meles Alem (Amb.) said they will collaborate with the International Organization of Migration (IOM) to repatriate those Ethiopians found in dire conditions in Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Sudan, Yemen and Oman.
Meles said “the repatriation of about 102, 000 Ethiopian citizens from Saudi Arabia to their homeland went according to plan, repatriating 50 percent of the total population with 126 flights since March 2022.”
The Kenyan government is urged to enhance surveillance and seal-off growing illicit trade between countries and Uganda, its biggest trading partner in the region.
This follows an explosive documentary that lifts the lid on Kenya’s rampant trade in counterfeit and smuggled goods, with cigarettes topping the list.
Stop Crime Kenya (StoCK), which has a secretariat at the Consumers Federation of Kenya (Cofek), has now called for urgent response from lawmakers.
Investigation by African Uncensored revealed the deep-rooted involvement of law enforcement officers in the smuggling of illicit goods, ranging from cigarettes to sugar, which robs Kenyans of billions of shillings every year.
Insiders, who are filmed speaking on conditions of anonymity, tell of high-ranking officers running illicit trade cartels, bribing police and border officials and the deadly consequences for anyone who tries to blow the whistle on these destructive activities.
The trade in counterfeit or smuggled goods has reached unprecedented levels and is worth more than Sh 800 billion a year.
The Ministry of Finance announced a Shs215 billion project for improving the infrastructure and quality of services in 14 regional referral hospitals and address inefficiencies in the Kampala sewage system.
Matia Kasaija, Finance Minister, told journalists in Kampala that the funding is through a grant from the government of the Netherlands.
“We have signed two grant agreements worth EUR 650,000 (Shs 2.47bln) towards Uganda’s health Sector, particularly to finance the feasibility studies to strengthen the capacity of 14 regional referral hospitals. This will enable the development of a EUR 55 million (Shs 209.6 billion) project to be funded by the Netherlands,” Kasaija said.
Another Euros 735,000 (Shs2.8b) will be used to improve the fecal sludge management in the greater Kampala metropolitan area.
Karin Boven, the Ambassador of the Netherlands in Uganda, said the two grants will be essential in addressing gaps in service delivery, which are partly a result from the growing population.
“The two grants will support feasibility studies which precede the actual implementation. The referral hospital grant compliments earlier efforts by the Netherlands that supported health infrastructure in referral hospitals,” Boven said.
The general strike of government employees in the Nuba Mountains, South Kordofan, that entered its third month, has led to the closure of the main hospitals in the state. Patients in South Darfur are forced to visit expensive private clinics or stay at home as the state hospitals are closed as well.
The South Kordofan civil servants demand the payment of their financial dues, including arrears from 2020 and 2021 and the application of the new 2022 salary structure that was supposed to be implemented in the entire country in January.
Sources claim that the planned salary increases have been implemented only in Khartoum.
The Teaching Hospital in Kadugli, capital of South Kordofan, the Delling Teaching Hospital, the Mother Bakheeta Maternity Hospital in Delling and the Abbasiya Hospital are completely closed. The hospital of Debeibat is the only state hospital that still treats emergency cases.
Medics told Radio Dabanga that the state government could not provide the required budget to operate the emergency departments, which prompted the doctors to stop working as they are unable to run their daily work.
On his third-day official visit to Eritrea, President Hassan Sheik Mohamud of the Federal Republic of Somalia, accompanied by President Isaias Afwerki on July 11, visited the port city of Massawa and its environs.
Hassan further met and inspected military parade of the speed boats of members of Somali National Army who have been receiving naval training in Eritrea.
Speaking to the trainees, Hassan indicated that the trainees are the offspring of the once strong Somali Naval Force, are to date part of the force that is under restoration.
Likewise, Isaias on July 10 hosted a dinner reception in honor of Hassan at the State House. Isaias held extensive, cordial discussions focusing on the situation of their countries, bilateral relations as well as regional matters. Based on their convergent views, the two leaders agreed to bolster political, diplomatic, security, economic, social, and cultural cooperation between Eritrea and Somalia.
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