Mekele Airport Innagurated

The Modern Mekele Alula Aba Nega Airport was innagurated on 18 January 2003 by H.E. Dr. Kassu Ilala, Minister of Infrastructure and H.E Ato Tsegai Berhe, Chief Administrator of Tigrai. The new Airport has all the facilities of a modern Airport. The runway is 3.6k.m long. There is a modern terminal building with all the necessary facilities and a control tower with the State of the Art equipments. There are eleven check-in bays each equipped with an electrical weighing scale, three passengers lounges, a VIP lounge with a small conference room, which can be used for briefing the press. One of the three lounges is going to be for international passengers. There are talks that this could start soon at least to the Middle East. There are offices, rooms for shops and banks, a cafe and a spacious restaurant. The furniture is a good mixture of modern and traditional.

The Yohannis IV Airport at Axum was inaugurated last year. It is smaller but also modern. There is hope that a third modern Airport will be built at Humera. This will give Tigrai a third modern Airport.

Ethiopia has embarked on a massive multi-billion Birr exercise to improve the air and road transport in the country. So far new airports have been built in Arba-Minch, AxuM, Gondar, Lalibella and Mekele. The Bahir Dar and Dire Dawa Airport terminals have been given a complete face lift and have been enlarged and improved. The ultra-modern Addis Airport is of course a class on its own.

In the meantime in a bid to improve the transport infrastructure a massive road building and upgrading work is under way. A number of International companies, European, Japanese, Chinese etc are working as Contractors and consultants. When the net-work of roads is completed there is no doubt it will stimulate trade and economic development in the country. In this exercise roads going North to South, East to West and all those in between are targeted. What is more in areas where there were no roads new roads are being constructed. Here are the main example of roads undergoing renovation. These roads are being built to a very high standard with concrete asphalt. The roads under construction are Addis-Moyale (771km) of which the Addis-Awasa part (273km) is completed and open to traffic, Addis-Harar (526km) and this road could possibly be extended to Jigjiga (102km), Addis- Metu (600) this goes via Jimma, Addis-Nekemtie- Assosa (673km), Addis-Gondar (738km) Addis-Wukro (829km) this road will be eventually extended to Zalambessa, and Shasemane Arba-Minch (238km). In addition the newly openned Gondar- Metema-Yohannis road, the Adigrat Inda-Selassie roads will be asphalted. Work on the later will start November this year. The gravel Inda-Selassie-Humera road via Sheraro is approaching completion and is to be extended from Humera to the Sudan border, not too long a distance. The Metu-Gambella road is also under construction. there are many more roads under the rural roads department of the Regions being built. These days it is becoming a common phenomenon to witness over the TV the openning of new roads. Openning-up the country-side is no doubt a boost to economic development and change. There is talk going on about getting into railways line building .This, if realized, besides making it possible to boost mass transport and bulk haulage, open-up a lot of the country-side and make connection with neighboring countries such as Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and on to South Africa easy. It will encourage trade. Let us hope that this noble idea goes beyond talk and materializes into Something tangible soon.

Addis has been having massive face-lift in recent days in preparation for the African Union conference. The people and government working hand in hand have been working day and night to make Addis Ababa worthy capital of Africa. Seeing what has been accomplished in such a short-time in beautifying Addis, you cannot help but ask yourself, '' if we are capable of this to-day why did we not do it before? '' But then you realize that it needed a government committed to change and development to under take this task. The new Addis mood is uplifting. Let us hope that this newly found momentum will not slacken once the dignitaries leave the capital. In fact people are asking to keep it up. The AU conference has started to day and is expected to approve the charter of the new organization. Forty years ago the African visionaries approved the AOU charter here in Addis Ababa. To day we are witnessing history being made again. This time around however the mood in Africa is even more forward looking. AU will no doubt promote peace and stability in the continent and foster economic development.

The AU summit a in addition to cementing the political and economic tie of African countries is a bonanza to hotel owners. They must be doing a roaring business. But these days the tourist industry is growing and hotels have been doing good business. In any case things are looking-up in Ethiopia. This despite the worst drought in living memory. Speaking of the drought and famine, government is doing everything possible to minimize the adverse effect and so far things are not bad. The Ethiopia people are giving generously. Donor countries that were reluctant are now warming-up and starting to respond. The help coming is substantial. We should thank the American government and people who have been in the forefront in assisting Ethiopia in its time of need. In the meantime work is under way to reduce such shortages in the future. The country has embarked on a massive water harvesting exercise at the household level. People are building ponds to harvest rain in the coming season. This is being done in those areas that are drought prone. The poverty reduction plan is also being carried out in parallel, with help from friendly countries. Agriculture diversification is under-way and the prediction is also that the belg-rains are coming. It has already started to rain in those areas that get the short-rain and farmers are working on the land. Well! after all things are not as gloomy as some people paint it to be.