Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is to celebrate its 100th founding anniversary and the new Ethiopian millennium during 2-4 May 2008 at the Addis Ababa Exhibition Center. Briefing journalists in connection with the celebration, public relations bureau head with the ministry Tarkegne Tsege said the main objective of the celebration is to familiarize the public with the activities of the ministry during the last 100 years.

According to ENA, the celebration also aims at motivating stakeholders and the public to further strengthen agricultural production and productivity in the country during the new millennium. The celebration comprises a panel discussion, photographic exhibition, and documentary film depicting activities of the ministry, Tarkegne said. Regional agriculture and rural development bureaus, unions of farmers’ cooperatives, input suppliers, farmers, and other pertinent bodies will take part in the celebration. The number of farmers embraced in the extension program across the nation has reached over 6 million at present which was only 35,000 a few years ago. There are 25 agriculture, technical and vocational colleges and over 7,400 farmers’ training centers have been constructed across the country, he added.

Persons involved in corruption get 7 to 13 years of imprisonment

The First Criminal Bench of the Federal High Court on 18 April 2008 sentenced Sem Wube Eshete, former Commercial bank employee, and Eyosias Tesfamariam Esuamlak, his accomplice, to 13 and 7 years of imprisonment, respectively, for corruption offense, the Federal Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (FEACC) says. ENA reported that according to the charge filed against them by FEACC, Sem, along with Eyosias and another third accomplice, who has been in hideout, willfully prepared counterfeit document in order to swindle over 1,118,000 birr the Finish Evangelical Luthran Church sent to the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Menane Yesus through three different swift messages to be paid by the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE). By taking advantage of the code number he was able to know while carrying out his duties, Sem, who was a staff member at the foreign money transfer section with the CBE along with his collaborator altered the names and addresses of the sender, the receiver and the paying branch of the bank on the swift message. The culprits later deposited a total of over 1,118,000 birr in to three different bank accounts, which they opened for this particular purpose. They withdrew over 1, 050,000 Birr form the accounts and used it up. As a result, the CBE had to pay the above stated sum to the Ethiopian Evangelical Church, the charge reads. Therefore, the court handed down the verdict as the convicts have failed to defend themselves from the charge pressed against them, FEACC said.

Debre Markos licenses over 31.6 million birr investment projects

Investors with an aggregate capital of over 31.6 million birr in Debre Markos town received licenses over the past nine months, the zonal administration service office said.

Office Head Humnessa Bekele told ENA on Monday that the licenses were provided to some 71 investors who would be engaged in industry, agriculture, construction, hotel, tourism and other sectors. The investors received 85,600 hectares plots, he said.

While going fully operational, the projects are expected to create jobs for more than 400 people, he said.

House hears report of Ministry of Capacity Building, refers additional budget request bill

The House of Peoples' Representatives on Thursday heard the nine months performance report of the Ministry of Capacity Building. The house has also referred an additional budget request bill to pertinent standing committee. Presenting the report to the house, Capacity Building Minster, Tefera Walwa said capacity building programs are accelerating the socio-economic development of the country. The minister on the session presented capacity building programs in civil service, justice system reform, and good governance, engineering, and information communication sectors. Tefera said though disparities are witnessed among different regions in execution of the civil service program, regions with better capacities are in a good position to bring changes through executing the program. Regarding justice system reform program, activities are well in progress in rendering efficient service to the public as well as in ensuring supremacy of law at all levels. The justice system reform program has plans to contribute share in the process of ensuring democracy, ensuring sustainable development and in attaining good governance. Information Communication Technology (ICT) program is meant to create conducive atmosphere for effective application of the ICT in the national development endeavor. It is also aimed at bringing the speed of the national ICT development parallel with the ICT advancement in other parts of the world. With regard to engineering capacity building program, Tefera said, the program has been implemented to make nation's industrial products competitive in the global market through enhancing the manufacturing capacity of the industries. According to Tefera, transferring technology is vital in the efforts of accelerating nation’s industrial development. Meanwhile, the house referred a bill requesting additional budget to pertinent standing committee. The federal government has requested an over 1.01 billion birr additional budget for the current fiscal year. The budget is requested for the construction of road projects launched in various parts of the country.