Chinese firm steps up investment in Ethiopia with 'shoe city'

Shoemaker Huajian says new $2bn manufacturing zone will transfer skills to locals so they can become the future managers

• Share 92
• Email

• Elissa Jobson in Addis Ababa
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 30 April 2013 09.30 BST

Ethiopian workers at Huajian's shoe factory near Addis Ababa mark out leather for shoes. Photograph: Elissa Jobson/guardian.co.uk

Helen Hai, vice-president of Chinese footwear manufacturer the Huajian Group, has a bold ambition. Within a decade, she wants Ethiopia to be a global hub for the shoe industry, supplying the African, European and American markets.
"We are not coming all the way here just to reduce our costs by 10 to 20%," Hai says. "Our aim is in 10 years' time to have a new cluster of shoe making here. We want to build a whole supply chain … I want everything to be produced here."
Huajian has a factory near Addis Ababa employing 600 people, which opened in January 2012, and has committed to jointly invest $2bn (£1.3bn) over the next decade to create a light manufacturing special economic zone in Ethiopia, creating employment for around 100,000 Ethiopians. The company, which employs 25,000 workers in China, expects to be able to provide around 30,000 jobs in Addis Ababa by 2022.
Huajian's partner in this project is the China-Africa Development Fund (CADFund), a private equity facility promoting Chinese investment in the continent. Born out of the 2006 Forum on China-Africa Co-operation, the fund was launched in June 2007 with $1bn provided by the China Development Bank. A further injection of $2bn was made early last year.
CADFund focuses on funding agriculture, infrastructure, natural resources and industrial park projects like that planned by Huajian, and has invested in a diverse range of ventures including a power plant in Ghana, a port in Nigeria, cotton farms in Malawi and a $100m car plant in South Africa.
Hai's vision is on its way to becoming a reality: a lease has been signed on 300 hectares (741 acres) of land in Lebu, on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, where Huajian plans to build a "shoe city", providing accommodation for up to 200,000 workers and factory space for other producers of footwear, handbags and accessories. The complex will offer help and advice to entrepreneurs setting up companies. "[It will be] a one-stop shop for manufacturers that are similar to us," Hai, who expects construction on the site to begin this year, says.
"One thing in my strategy is very clear: that I don't want to compete with locals," Hai says. "I want to help them grow because when local producers grow, the whole market is growing. If it is just myself growing here in five years' time, I will leave."
A pair of Huajian shoes ready to be boxed up for export. Photograph: Elissa Jobson/guardian.co.uk One area where she feels the company could make a difference is in leather tanning. "The sheepskin and goatskin are good but local people don't know how to manage cowskin," Hai says. "I want to offer my skills to help the locals. I don't want to have my own tannery because I don't want to create problems. I want to be friendly."
This kind of warm and fuzzy talk from a Chinese company may surprise some analysts, academics and journalists who often characterise China's involvement in Africa as voracious neocolonial pillaging. Hai admits that her strategy is not necessarily pursued by every Chinese private enterprise operating in the continent.
Zemedeneh Negatu, managing partner at Ernst & Young Ethiopia, welcomes Huajian's plan to build a complete supply chain for the shoe industry and applauds its efforts to transfer skills. "That should be the goal. You create clusters around one or two major foreign or Ethiopian investors, throughout the country, based on competitive and comparative advantages," he says. "Huajian could be the anchor but all around are Ethiopian companies. It should be made clear to investors that they need to help build local capacity."
The company cites employee welfare as a priority. In China, Huajian has a modest outfit 40km (25 miles) south of the capital, Beijing, employing 1,700 workers and exporting more than $1m worth of shoes each month to the US and the UK. In Dongguan, in the southern province of Guangdong, the majority of the staff come from poor rural areas. The company provides accommodation, hot meals, clothing and laundry services, as well as free childcare. A similar package is offered to its Ethiopian workers who, in addition, earn 10% above the average local wage.
The Huajian factory near Addis Ababa employs 130 Chinese workers, all in supervisory roles. The number of expatriates on the payroll has come down from 200 when production began in January 2012, and Huajian plans to reduce it further. "For me, localisation is so important. I don't see myself managing this factory in five to eight years' time. I see someone local standing here talking to you," Hai says.
The company has selected 130 university graduates from southern Ethiopia to spend a year in China at its training facility. About 270 more will be recruited later. "They are going to be the future managers," Hai says. "They are going to be a new force."

Protest in City Heights of Controversial Ethiopian Consulate Meeting

by Anna Daniels on April 29, 2013 · 28 comments

in Activism, Culture, Politics

Local Ethiopian Community Invited to Attend Meeting,  Allege They Were Kicked Out for Protesting Ethiopian Government’s Human Rights Abuses

By Anna Daniels
Lines of taxicabs were parked along Fairmount Avenue in City Heights yesterday afternoon–Sunday April 28.  Police cars were parked in front of the Golden Hall East African Community and Cultural Center where approximately sixty people were holding a protest that spilled into the adjacent parking lot.   Signs with “Stop Human Rights Abuses” were visible among the group waving Ethiopian and American flags.
According to protesters, the Ethiopian Consulate from Los Angeles was barricaded inside the cultural center with an undetermined number of members of the San Diego and Los Angeles Ethiopian Community. The Consulate was attending a widely publicized meeting to promote the purchase of bonds to build a controversial dam in Ethiopia that threatens the livelihood of thousands of indigenous peoples.
Protesters maintained that flyers advertising the meeting had been left in City Heights Ethiopian markets and restaurants.  One woman told me that when the protesting group entered the cultural center they were met with invectives, hostility and intimidation before being dispersed from the meeting which had been publicized as open to the public.
Protesters were anxious to describe the current conditions in Ethiopia under a government led by the minority Tigray tribe.  Someone handed me the 2012 US State Department Human Rights Watch which detailed the Ethiopian government suppression of journalists and bloggers and the alarming incidences of imprisonment and torture.  There is no independent press in Ethiopia and dissenting political views are often treated as “terrorism.”
The enormous dam under construction in Ethiopia, undertaken by the current government/Tigray minority, has become a flash point for inter-tribal tensions.  The protesters represented non-Tigray ethnic and tribal groups who described being left out of the dam planning process, despite the profound impacts it would have upon their villages.
Because the funding for the dam has not been fully secured, the government has demanded that the populace pay directly for the needed bonds.  Protesters described the pressure brought to bear on businesses and individuals to make “donations” for the bonds.  Protesters that I spoke with emphasized that dissenters are imprisoned under horrendous conditions.  “We have freedom here in this country, but our families have no such freedom,” was repeated by men and women holding both the American and Ethiopian flags.
According to the Ethiopian Review, “The Ethiopian National Transitional Council (ENT) has sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) demanding an investigation into the legality of the Nile dam bond sales that are being conducted in the US.  The letter challenges the commission that the sales are in violation of the US trade laws and the Ethiopian Embassy in the US has no legal ground to do such business. ”
There were a few signs protesting the World Bank decision to fund the dam project.  I asked protesters what response they feel is important from the US government.  Many of them said that we cannot keep supporting the Ethiopian  government politically and economically when we have reports outlining the extent and severity of human rights abuses there.  They supported sanctions, if necessary, to pressure the government as well as a full fledged investigation of the legality of the bond process being carried out here in the United States.
While the protesters included activists from Los Angeles, the majority of the people were residents of San Diego, and more specifically City Heights, where so many taxicab drivers and their families live.  Cars driving past honked their horns in support. At one point, parishioners from a local Ethiopian church joined the group.  Protesters described a tradition of Muslims and Christians living side by side in Ethiopia.  They emphasized that the protest was not a reflection of religious divisions.  No one spoke about the Ethiopian government’s recent active persecution of Muslims.
Human Rights Watch describes the current situation in Ethiopia:

The death in August 2012 of Ethiopia’s powerful prime minister, Meles Zenawi, led to new leadership but seems unlikely to result in tangible human rights reforms. Ethiopian authorities continue to severely restrict freedom of expression, association, and assembly. Thirty journalists and opposition members have been convicted under the country’s vague Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, and security forces responded to protests by Muslim communities with excessive force and arbitrary detentions. The Ethiopian government continues to forcibly resettle hundreds of thousands of rural villagers, including indigenous peoples, as part of its “villagization” program, relocating them through violence and intimidation, and often without essential services.

There is perhaps an even larger story to consider here.  The dam constructed in Ethiopia will have consequences upon another eleven countries which rely heavily upon the Nile for agriculture, fishing and electrical power.  This raises the obvious concern that the next war in the region may not be about politics at all.  It will be about water.

Photos by Richard Kacmar

Ethiopia: fire destroys UNESCO-registered coffee forest

Created on Tuesday, 30 April 2013 06:32

Twitter

Нравится

(OPride) – A recent massive brush fire in the Illu Abba Boora zone of Oromia region, Ethiopia has wiped out a sizable portion of the UNESCO-registered Yayu Coffee Forest Biosphere Reserve, reports said. The cause of the blaze, which has spread around the Yayu forest over the last several weeks, remains unknown.

According to eyewitness accounts, the blaze has scorched an estimated 50 to 80 acres of the thick coffee forest. “Such fire has never happened before in the history of the Yayu forest and the knowledge of the people living in the area,” one Yayu resident, who asked not to be named, told OPride. “It has been burning for several weeks without any intervention from the government except that of the local community to contain it to protect its advancement to their side.” The internationally recognized Yayu forest is home to the last remaining species of wild coffee Arabica and some of Ethiopia’s rare flora and bird species.

Several diaspora-based activists have accused the government for setting the forest ablaze to make a way for its development projects. The state-run media ignored the fire, and instead reported on a new fertilizer factory being built near the area. Citing several “journalists working for the government TV and radio stations,” New York-based political analyst Jawar Mohammed said, Ethiopian authorities have once again imposed a media blackout warning local reporters, including those working for state-run media houses, not to cover the story.

EPRDF, Ethiopia’s ruling party, now in power for 22 years, has been accused of setting forest reserves on fire in the past. For example, in 1999 and early 2000, a similar forest fire in Bale and Borana, also in the Oromia region, led to Oromia-wide student protests and the government's slow response caused a strong public outcry. At the time, instead of putting out the fire, the government resorted to cracking down on students.

As was the case in 2000, eyewitnesses said the government is blaming the current fire on locals amid reports of some arrests. “The Ethiopian regime is known for playing the blame game on others for its own crimes,” another Yayu native told OPride last week. “The government doesn’t want the image of the coal mining and fertilizer factory projects to be associated with such environmental destructions,” the source said. Eyewitness reports indicate that the government alleges, “the fire was lit by people doing forest honey collection, a process associated with the life of the local people.” The OPride source noted, the locals lived collecting honey for generations, “but never witnessed such incidents of disaster.”
According to a new research by Plos One, a peer-reviewed online international publication, while there is some wild coffee in the Bale mountains range, the Yayu forest has “the largest and most diverse populations of indigenous (wild) Arabica” anywhere in the world.

Ethiopia’s overall forest reserves have dwindled in the last two decades due to growing population, land scarcity, and uncontrolled deforestation in the name of development. In 2010, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimated Ethiopia’s forest cover at 12.2 million hectare or 11 percent of the total landmass. The study noted a decline from 15.11 million hectare in 1990 (a year before the current regime took office). While statistics on forest fire is rare, the FAO study said, “in 2008 fire affected 16 163 hectare of land in the autonomous region of Oromiya.”

UNESCO Biosphere Reserves are meant as sustainable development test cases in efforts “to reconcile conservation of biological and cultural diversity and economic and social development through partnerships between people and nature.” The Yayu forest reserve is one such effort by the international body to find sustainable ways for the forest to be preserved. But as another Yayu native, who asked not to be identified due to fear of repercussions told OPride, little has been done besides symbolic UNESCO designation as the initiative crosses the “the political border of national development interest.”

The source added, the federal “government never really supported the designation of the Yayu afromontane forest area as a UNESCO reserve.” “Rather, a team of scientists at Addis Ababa University led by Dr. Tadesse Woldemariam, which used the forest as a research base for several advanced studies supported by German based institutions affiliated to the interest in the forest coffee put a great deal of effort into this.”

Evidently, the federal government has struggled with how to proceed with its development agenda in the area. According to our source, more than ten years ago, local youth raised concerns that the development objectives didn’t offer benefits for the local people. To “address” this local discontent and lend the projects some legitimacy, the federal government turned to few elites who grew up in the area but whose parents were relocated from Tigray during the infamous 1985 famine. Speaking about the government’s efforts to assuage local grievances, the source gave an example of certain Getachew Atsbeha, a graduate of the local high school, who flew in with an Ethiopian Defense Forces helicopter last year leading a team of visiting researchers of the new project.

While the recent Yayu forest fire has been contained, in large part thanks to heavy rain and community involvement, the lingering issues over planned projects remain. “The government seems intent on selling the land,” one caller said on ESAT Radio program last week. “People have been displaced to make ways for the factories...government officials and state-owned enterprises are moving in...even the daily laborers are coming from Tigray.”

According to sources familiar with the ongoing projects, the main project under construction is a multi-purpose fertilizer factory. “The project became a cause for developing the area such as the road in Yayu town and constructing houses for the staff in the project,” the source said. “This has direct links to other national projects such as the sugar industry...the fertilizer will be used to support the sugarcane production, while other mechanized farming in Gambella and Benishangul regions [are expected to] become immediate consumers.” As fertilizer prices continue to soar worldwide, the building of a local manufacturer would reduce the import of fertilizer. In addition, the sugar factories around the country would operate on coal that would be produced in Yayu alongside the fertilizer. The alternative energy source will then reduce over reliance on hydroelectric power.

Last January, local newspaper Capital Ethiopia reported, the state-owned engineering company, Metal and Engineering Corporation, “is on the right track to produce fertilizer for the next cropping season.”

By the end of the much-publicized Growth and Transformation Plan, which ends in 2015, “Ethiopia envisions building eight fertilizer companies in the Oromia Regional state as per its governing five-year economic plan,” the report said. “The construction of Yayu fertilizer factory number one and two will reach 65 percent and 33 percent completion rate, respectively, this year. The design work for the Dap factory is already completed, while civil work and equipment production is underway.”

The Ethiopian government has commissioned several feasibility studies on the Yayu coal reserves for many years. Most recently a Chinese firm called COMPLANT did a study with a price of 12 million birr. The study found the Yayu area has over “100 million tons of coal”, which could “produce 300,000 tons of Urea [used in the manufacture of fertilizer], 250,000 tons of Dap, 20,000 tons of ethanol and 90MW of electric power annually for decades.” Following the feasibility study, “in March 2012, METEC awarded the construction of the first fertilizer factory in the country to Tekleberhan Ambaye Construction Plc at a cost of 792 million birr,” according to Capital Ethiopia.

The government turned to COMPLANT, after a 2005 study by a European consultancy firm, Fichiner, deemed the project not environmentally responsible temporarily forcing the government to reconsider the project, according to Addis Fortune.

Related: Wild Arabica Coffee Populations Under Severe Threat

አርቲስት ጀማነሽ ሰለሞን ታሰረች

Written by  አለማየሁ አንበሴ እና ናፍቆት ዮሴፍ /addisadmass/

“የፍርድ ሂደቱ ሲጠናቀቅ ጋዜጣዊ መግለጫ እንሠጣለን” - ከጀማነሽ ጋር የታሰሩ አባት

በተለያዩ የመድረክ ቴያትሮች፣ በቴሌቪዥንና በሬዲዮ ድራማዎች በተለይም “ገመና” በተሰኘው ተከታታይ የቴሌቪዥን ድራማ የእናትነት ገፀ - ባህሪን ተላብሳ በመተወን የምትታወቀው አርቲስት ጀማነሽ ሰለሞን ታሰረች፡፡ አርቲስቷ ማክሰኞ ማታ ተይዛ አራት ኪሎ የሚገኝ ፖሊስ ጣቢያ ከታሰረች በኋላ ረቡዕ አመሻሽ ላይ ወደ ጉለሌ ክፍለ ከተማ ወረዳ ዘጠኝ መዛወሯንና ከእርሷ ጋር ሌላ አንዲት ሴትና ሁለት ወንዶች መታሰራቸውን በስፍራው ተገኝተን አረጋግጠናል፡፡ አርቲስት ጀማነሽና አብረዋት የታሰሩት ግለሰቦች ሃሙስ እለት አፍንጮ በር መንገድ አዲስ አበባ ሬስቶራንት አካባቢ በሚገኝ የመጀመሪያ ደረጀ ፍርድ ቤት ቀርበው ጉዳያቸው የታየ ሲሆን የፊታችን በድጋሚ ፍርድ ቤት ይቀርባሉ፡፡

አርቲስቷንና አብረዋት የታሰሩትን ሰዎች ለመጠየቅ ወደ ስፍራው ከመጡ ግለሰቦች ለመረዳት እንደቻልነው፤ አርቲስቷና አብረዋት ያሉት ሰዎች የታሰሩት “ማህበረ ስላሴ ዘ ደቂቀ ኤልያስ” ከተባለው ማህበራቸውና ከሀይማኖት ጉዳይ ጋር በተያያዘ እንደሆነ ጠቁመው ዝርዝር መረጃ ከመስጠት ተቆጥበዋል፡፡ ከአርቲስቷ ጋር የታሰሩት አንድ የሃይማኖት አባት፤ ጉዳዩ በፍርድ ቤት የተያዘ በመሆኑ ከፍርድ ሂደቱ በኋላ ጋዜጣዊ መግለጫ እንደሚሰጡ፣ አሁን ምንም አይነት ዝርዝር መረጃ ለመስጠት ፈቃደኛ እንዳልሆኑ ነግረውናል፡፡ አርቲስት ጀማነሽን ሊጠይቋት የመጡ ሰዎችን ለማነጋገር ስትወጣ በተመለከትናት ጊዜ በፈገግታ የታጀበች ሲሆን ጠያቂዎቿ “እንዴት ነሽ ተመቸሽ?” ብለው ሲጠይቋት “እግዚአብሔር ያለበት ቦታ ሁሉ ምቹ ነው” ስትል ምላሽ ሰጥታለች፡፡ አርቲስቷ ከቅርብ ጊዜ ወዲህ “ተዋህዶ” በሚል ሃይማኖት ውስጥ ተሣታፊ በመሆን አነጋጋሪ ሆና መቆየቷ የሚታወስ ነው፡፡

ወረዳ ዘጠኝ ፖሊስ ጣቢያ በተገኘን ጊዜ የሃይማኖቱ ተከታዮች የሚለብሱት የቀስተደመና ቀለማት ያሉት ነጠላ አጣፍታ፣ ፀጉሯንም የቀስተ ደመና ቀለም ዙሪያውን ባቀለመው ሻሽ አስራለች፡፡ ማህበረ ስላሴ ዘ ደቂቀ ኤልያስ “የኢትዮጵያን ትንሣኤ ሊያረጋግጥ ሃያል ባለስልጣን ነብዩ ኤልያስ ከብሔረ ህያዋን ጳጉሜ 1/2003 ዓ.ም ወደ ምድር መጥቶ በመካከላችን ይገኛል፣ ኦርቶዶክስ የሚባለው የሃይማኖት ስም ስህተት ነው ተዋህዶ ነው መባል ያለበት፣ ሰንበት ቅዳሜ ብቻ ነው፣ መለበስ ያለበት እግዚአብሔር ለኖህ ቃል ኪዳን የገባበትን ቀስተ ደመና ቀለማት ያካተተ ጥለት ያላቸው ነጭ አልባሳት ናቸው” የሚሉትን የተለያዩ ጉባኤዎችን እያዘጋጀ የሚያስተምር ማህበር መሆኑን ያነጋገርናቸው የማህበሩ አባላት ገልፀውልናል፡፡ በተለያዩ ገዳማትም የሀይማኖቱ አራማጆች እንደሚገኙና እንደሚያስተምሩ ያገኘናቸው የሃይማኖቱ ተከታዮች ነግረውናል፡፡ በጉዳዩ ዙሪያ ከፖሊስ መረጃ ለማግኘት ጥረት ብናደርግም፣ ከመምሪያው የተፃፈ ፈቃድ ያስፈልጋል በሚል የወረዳው ፖሊስ መረጃ ከመስጠት ተቆጥቧል፡፡

Eritrean Refugees Tortured for Ransom in 'Silent Tragedy'

by Hannah McNeish

VOA






Trafficking in Africa has long been a problem, from drugs and minerals to ivory and people. A new type of trade involving Eritreans fleeing the regime at home, however, has led to new tales of horror. Kidnapped in Sudan and sold into Egypt, Eritrean refugees reportedly are being tortured until families back home desperately search for the money to save them.

When Meron Estefanos checks her phone, the list of missed phone calls is chilling. The Swedish-Eritrean human rights activist speaks to between 15 to 20 Eritrean refugees per day, many while they apparently are being tortured.

She spoke out on the sidelines of the crime conference going on in Ethiopia.

“As you are being tortured, they will call your family, your parents," Estefanos said. "I have talked to a mother, she was listening as her daughter was being raped by five men, and they were just saying, 'this is for you, this is for you., this is for you,' and the mother is just like… 'What can you do?' The ransom payments are a minimum of $30,000 up to $50,000. So when you have no other option, I mean you pay or you die. This has been happening since 2009 and the international community has been keeping a blind eye.”

Rising 'torture trade'

Since Israel stripped African refugees of their right to work there, and international donors gave the late Moammar Gadhafi money to try and stem the tide of migrants reaching European shores, Estafanos said a new “torture trade” has sprung up among former smugglers in Egypt’s Sinai province.

Aid agencies say that about 3,000 Eritreans a month flee a harsh regime that has a “shoot to kill” policy for anyone trying to leave.

The United Nations Refugee Agency says more than 250,000 Eritrean refugees and nearly 15,000 asylum seekers live across the Horn of Africa.

The Eritrean government is alleged to make its people pay to leave, punishes families with penalties for “defectors,” and blackmails the diaspora into paying two percent tax on incomes.

Targeting refugee camps

Now, according to Estafanos and a number of international organizations, many of the Eritrean people are being kidnapped from refugee camps in Sudan and sold to Egypt’s Bedouin people via various clans.

Estefanos - who also runs a radio show from Sweden that provides what she said is non-partisan news for Eritrea - said that some of the most horrific torture is being meted out while no one intervenes.

“They would hang them like Jesus Christ for four hours a day, every day and they will gang rape the men and the women, they would force hostages to rape each other," said Estefanos.

She said that thousands already have gone through the kidnappings and torture, and about 100 people now are being held.

Alexander Rondos, European Union representative for the Horn of Africa, said this is a problem to which the world must wake up.

“It’s rather difficult to understand why something as horrifying as this is going on other [than] to ask why I suspect, this might be a classic case of utter indifference,” he said.

Global awareness needed

Rondos said that word of what he calls this “silent tragedy” has to be spread throughout the world.

“People need to get to know this story in all its horror. This is a form of slave trade. We invest tons of money to get rid of piracy, and this is a variant of piracy, but with even worse human consequences,” he said.

Rondos said the fact that people are passing through several states, and the lack of action in stamping out this trafficking trade, suggests that “there are elements of collusion or corruption."

Estefanos said this business is being run by about 25 families or "clans" and could be cleared up quickly. She said last year, when Egyptian forces went into Sinai to rescue a kidnapped British citizen, they found some of the detainees chained, beaten, starving and showing signs of torture, but did not free them.

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir admitted at the Ethiopian crime conference that the kidnapping of Eritrean refugees was a big problem.

Egyptian authorities under the fallen leader Hosni Mubarak also had pledged to help. But four years later, the ransoms are rising for some of the poorest people in the world.

As her phone rang again, Estefanos expressed hope that soon, the stories that haunt her will disappear.