ADDIS ABABA –The Federal Technical and Vocational Education and Training Agency (TVET) said that it is connecting its competent graduate trainees with ample job opportunities and strengthening its cooperation to work together with industrial stake holders.
With the intention of joining low and middle level human power to the sector, making the small and medium enterprises competent as well as  making technological transparent, the agency is giving due attention to collaborating with the partners.
Solomon Haile,   Communication Directorate Director within the Agency said that the main objective of the agency is seeing to the trainees' success in competency evaluation and employment at industries or start private jobs. In this regard, more than 68 percents of the competent trainees started job in the GTP II  .
Beyond training the students, the TVET institutions are working on supporting industry extension. They exert to make the industries productive and competent at international level. According to him, the agency is working its level best best regarding this.    
In an exclusive interview with The Ethiopian Herald, Yitayew Daniel, Technical Skill Team Leader under the Industry Extension Directorate within the Agency said that there were some agreements with some organization. There have been good relations with some of them while it was not satisfactory with the others. According to him, the result was the consequence of limitation on technical and vocational based strategy. 
This fiscal year, the Agency has already made discussions and finally agreed to work together with nine partners. As a preliminary stage, they have prepared a plan together and are trying to work jointly.
Ministry of construction, Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resource, Ministry of Science and Technology,  Job opportunity and Food Security Agency, Metal and Engineering Cooperation and Small and Medium manufacturing enterprise are among the nine stake holders said Yitayew.
Starting from deepening awareness, the agency will work strongly including technological transition with each stake holders, according to Yitayew. The Agency with the partners is already planning together on what their responsibility should be based on GTP II.  At present, they are working to get approval and present findings at management level.
Yitayew further stated that according to GTP II, the Agency is also working to create effective human power on small and medium level and make the enterprises proficient as well as create technological change at state level. Thus, it needs group action for its success and will join force with stake holders. 
Moreover, Solomon said that currently the perception of the society on TVET is getting better. Also, the agency is trying to work to increase the number of its regular trainees as well as the quality of education.
“The Agency is playing a great role in the country’s economic and social development” he said and will continue to create a skilled human power to support the nation's huge project for the future. 
The agency is now managing about 1357 institutions and there are more than three hundred thousand regular trainees.   A huge number of market oriented short trainings are also available under the TVET all over the nation.
 
BY GENET FEKADE
 
 

ADDIS ABABA -- The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Rights Office announced that it is working to introduce the country’s trademark at global market to combat illegal trading and boost business competition.
Office Trademark and Industrial Design Director Emishaw Bekele said as Ethiopia is a member country of Madrid agreement, it is now setting up the national trademark to the global businesses to gain the required criteria for other international treaties.
The national brand is crucial to send diverse commodities abroad and sell them in local markets withinternational standard. Although the awareness of local business people towards the importance of trademark is low, only five thousands of the trade enterprises carried out trademark registration.
Office Trademark and Industrial Design Expert Endale Deboche for his part said the registration is useful for business enterprises to preserve their products' originality and compete in local as well as international markets. When invasion of trademark right is observed, it will be used as evidence against fake products, he added.
The works of trademark registration will last for seven consecutive years; and it will not be valid unless it gets renewal every nine months, he indicated. 
Y ZELALEM GIRMA
 

High-level scientific delegation from the Russian Federation visited Addis Ababa recently to discuss issues of educational, scientific and technical cooperation between two sisterly countries. Dr. Andrey Adrianov, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Dr. Yuri Dgebuadze, Director of Biological Department of the Academy had a meeting with Dr. Getahun Mekuria, Minister of Science and Technology of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
During the negotiations the counterparts reviewed the current state of collaboration in education and science and reaffirmed their interest in expanding cooperation in areas of mutual interest. They welcomed the 30-year anniversary of the Joint Russian-Ethiopian Biological Expedition and discussed the roadmap for creating joint biological and zoological research centre in Ethiopia. Both sides signed the protocol for prolonging the existing agreement on scientific and technical cooperation.
Since its creation in 1987 the Joint Russian-Ethiopian Biological Expedition has achieved impressive results in studying bioresources, identifying new species for economic use, developing environment-related recommendations and providing assistance to training scientific personnel.
BY ADDISALEM MULAT
 

It has been three years since Ethiopia introduced new overseas employment proclamation. While the proclamation addressed many of the issues that are against the interests of Ethiopian employees overseas, the delay in its coming to effect has prevented the desired outcomes.
The previous proclamation had gaps in securing the safety, dignity and rights of citizens who are employed abroad. As a result, overseas employment has been banned by the government for the last five years in order to assess and bring long term resolutions.
Though the new proclamation serves as an instrument to ensure safe environment to create more domestic jobs, encourage regular migration and prevent human trafficking or illegal migration, some are still concerned that the implementation has been delayed because of prolonged period of preparation.
Basazin Deribie, Public Relations and Communication Senior Expert at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MOLSA) says the implementation of the new proclamation has been delayed because it requires effective preparation both in terms of technical capacity nationally and the signing bilateral agreements with recipient countries.
He says rather the main issue should be the future safety and rights of citizens who go abroad for overseas employment. And the implementation of the new proclamation has to accommodate every possible principles and structures in order to avoid the sad experiences of the past.
Different governmental and nongovernmental organizations are playing roles in implementing the new proclamation by taking several mandates.
However, the issues of illegal migration or human trafficking are still the government’s top concern, says Awol Sultan, Legal Study Drafting and Dissemination Prosecutor at the Federal Attorney. This called for endorsement of another proclamation 909/2014 which deals with criminal laws related to human trafficking and smuggling.
On the other hand, National Committee and Anti-Trafficking and Smuggling task force have been established. The task force is working in three different activities: prevention, investigation and rehabilitation, adds Awol.
This proclamation has also come up with new perspectives on exploitation by incorporating International protocols. In earlier trends, only using females for the sake of commercial sex work was considered as crime of exploitation.
But the new proclamation has stated that recruiting children for military purposes, holding persons as debt bondage, and stealing humans’ internal organs as crimes of exploitation.
And most of the time, it is illegal migrants who are vulnerable for such crimes. Therefore,the proclamation has broadened the prevention  mechanisms of human trafficking and smuggling.
“The minimum penalty for these crimes has also been raised from five to 15 years sentence” notes, Awol.
The new overseas proclamation 923/2016 on the other hand deals with complicated issues as the law is prepared in Ethiopia while its execution extends overseas. In order to implement the proclamation, there must be a regulation.
 In this case, overseas employment regulation is also endorsed and all the necessary structures have been established in every level of Federal and State governments. 
Overseas employment agencies are also the  focal points in this particular issue. There were more than 400 active overseas employment agencies in the country prior the new proclamation. The new proclamation obliges these agencies to meet strict requirements and regulations.
Their licenses could not be renewed unless they meet close to 13 preconditions of the new regulation. The preconditions include clear organizational structure and adequate financial capacity that enable them to protect the safety and rights of the citizens recruited for overseas employment.
Every agency is obliged to open branches in recipient countries. They are obliged to bring confirmation from the recipient country that ensures their reliability for the job and that they have no more than four previous records of misconduct.
Agencies are also obliged to provide temporary shelter, food and other facilities for the employees until they start their contractual job.  
“We have been assessing the backgrounds of the agencies and identified those who are capable to provide the service. For instance, those who have been banned for four times are no more allowed to engage in overseas employment services,” says Basazin.
On the other hand, there are also procedures and criteria for citizens to meet to work overseas. In this case, the government has been establishing structures and working with Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) centers of the nine states throughout the country to train and certify qualified citizens.
Bilateral agreements between Ethiopia and recipient countries are also crucial in this regard. “Overseas employment cannot be realized unless the countries have signed agreements. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, and Kuwait are major labor recipient countries that have already signed the agreement with Ethiopia,” he notes.
Currently, preparation to execute the proclamation has been accomplished. Repatriating undocumented Ethiopians abroad was also part of the task and some 67,000 repatriates from Saudi have been reinstated, adds Basazin.
Moreover, the new proclamation has helped to reduce human trafficking crimes to a certain extent. Referring to IOM’s report, Awol notes that missing and dead Ethiopian and Somali migrants who tried to cross boarders have decreased by 1000 in 2017. 
“But there are still criminal groups who are active in few neighboring countries working with secret networks.  In this case, all state and the federal governments should work together. Ethiopia and governments of other neighboring countries should also exert integrated efforts,” Awol emphasizes.
BY HENOK TIBEBU

ADDIS ABABA- Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resource announced that more than seven million farmers would take part in irrigation development during the dry season this year.
Daniel Dentamo, Deputy Public Relations Head at the Ministry told The Ethiopian Herald that irrigation is one of the sectors that the government has given due attention on the effort to transform agriculture.
He said first round irrigation development was started in areas where the regular harvest has been already collected.
According to him, from the total 3.3 million hectares which is the national plan of the year, 1.5 million hectares of land has so far been covered with products using irrigation.
Horticultural irrigation products are expected to play significant role in fulfilling the demand and stabilizing the market in urban areas.
Daniel also said besides averting farmer’s dependency on the annual seasonal rainfall, the rural youth population is expected to be major beneficiaries of the irrigation development.
He noted that since the youth is educated and keen to adopt new agricultural practices and technologies, it would be a possible mechanism to expand the lesson for other farmers who do not take irrigation as an alternative way of farming.
Particularly, the youth who live in Koqa Lake in the surrounding of Oromia State are provided with irrigation farm lands, tractors and water pumps which are part of the loan package from the revolving fund allocated.
He said the Ministry provided the youth with farming, harvesting techniques and is consulting them about market linkages.
In places where there is no free potential land for irrigation, the youth would get access to loans to farm their family’s land which is usually deserted after the seasonal rainfall production.
“This way the youth could be role models for their families and they could inspire them to involve in irrigation,” Daniel told The Ethiopian Herald.  
BY HENOK TIBEBU

ADDIS ABABA- Negotiation is underway between the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and United Nations Education Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) to find lasting solution to the threats facing the Lalilbel's monolithic Rock-Hewn Churches.
Years ago, a metal roof was erected as temporary solution to protect possible cracks and damages caused by sun slights. But the shelter has not been removed for several years.
Some residents fear that the protective shield could be damaging to the churches, Getu Asefa, UNESCO Cultural Program Officer told The Ethiopian Herald. Negotiation is ongoing between the ministry and UNESCO to put in place other mechanisms that were proved effective in other churches such as Bete Geberael and Bete Rufael.
The metal shelters were meant to shield the churches from winds and sun light and should have been removed earlier as possible collapses may damage the churches.  Accordingly the ministry and UNESCO are working to find lasting solution to conserve the marvelous world heritage.
Study has been finalized to select proper mechanisms to rehabilitate and conserve the churches. Engineering finance has been prepared and there will be announcement of bidding very soon to start work on rehabilitation. Hence, UNESCO would provide technical assistance and may help the country solicit financial resources. generating 300 MW wind power. The ministry also  commences negotiation and bidding process to generate power from sun light. The projects include Metahera (Central Ethiopia), Mekelle (Northern Ethiopia), Dichoto (North Eastern Ethiopia) and Gad (Eastern Ethiopia).
While some 7.2 MW is produced currently from geothermal, yet it is very low compared to the potential. “A final agreement is reached to produce 1000 MW at Corbetti and Tulu Mojo projects, each producing 500 MW.”
Wind energy taken to be a major energy source, says Bizuneh:”The ministry has planned to set up two wind farms. The first farm, 'Aisha II’ is under construction. The financial difficulty to commence the construction of the second project 'Asela' was resolved as agreement was reached with the government of Denmark to finance it.
Unprecedented in the past, the ministry has also opened the door for the private sector to invest and engage in the production of energy while the government still controls the distribution, as to Bizuneh.
Recently, Ethiopia has launched the very ambitious project of national electrification program to make electricity accessible in all parts of the country.

 ADDIS ABABA – Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage announced that it has finalized preparation to implement new cultural heritage inventory management system.
Authority Heritage Management and Inventory Senior Expert Abera Anjulo told the Amharic daily Addis Zemen that the new digital inventory management system would introduce modern technology and upgrade the previous inventory system.
The system would be functional in five states and two city administrations as a pilot project this budget year and is expected to ease the heritage conservation program’s registration and monitoring activities.
As to him, the system would prevent heritage looting and illegal trafficking and hence support the heritage tourism sector. It would help speed up its heritage registration program that has started in the 1970s but not finalized as of yet, he noted.
On the other hand, the system would help to conduct additional study on the newly registered heritages, he stated.
This week, the authority experts will travel to the states and city administrations to give training to experts on the implementation of the system, according to him. The new system is invented by Aksid, local information technology company.   
BY YOHANES JEMANEH

The Executive Committee of Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has continued evaluating the implementation of the deep reform.  For few scholars EPRDF current evaluation promises a positive future.
In a statement last week, EPRDF vowed to restore its tradition of working in unison and to ensure governance so as to expedite the country’s development.
Amanuel Gebru (Ph.D), an Associate Prof. with Addis Ababa University School of Media and Communication says rifts of mistrust and blaming one another are natural for political parties, but it is wise to handle differences carefully.  With adequate communication, it will not be unattainable to see the light at the end of the tunnel, he hints.
He even says if conflicts were not to surface, it would be tough to build resilience.
Amanuel argues that the intraparty relations among EPRDF might be weakening due to lack of open mindedness in accommodating various beliefs. “It is very advantageous to the member parties, if they nurture critical thinking and weigh ideas based on their relevance to the people of the nation.”
Few members seem to be after political goals or personal gains with little or no understanding to the consequence of their actions to the coexistence of the nations,   nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia, he adds.
The eruption of violence in several universities and clashes in different parts of  Ethiopia can have links to this.   It is also taking sort of ethnic shape. This should be denounced in the strongest terms possible at all levels particularly at the highest leadership level. “We don’t refer the value of peace from books, we’ve practical experience. Thus, the leadership of EPRDF needs to increase its commitment to put lasting solution to the problems erupting in various parts of the country.” 
Hopefully, EPRDF leadership is aware of the fact that truth-seeking requires persistence and humility, he says, adding: “A commitment to truth-seeking will sometimes take us outside our comfort zone, obliging us to admit weaknesses.”  
EPRDF is spearheading millions, thus, its strong and durable decision is so decisive in keeping the country well on track, he underscores. He is also optimistic as the Executive would come up with stringent and historic decisions.  
Shishay Amare Gebremeskel (PhD), an Asst. Prof. with Mekelle University’s School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Ethiopian Institute of Technology (EiT-M). To him, solutions to the problems would be devised in a top-down approach. The majority of the problem is relating to unable to respect the rule of law.  Officials should walk their talks. If rule of law is believed to be central and binding, every effort of the government should take place in an accountable and transparent manner, he stresses.
Otherwise, the current problems, which at some point are taking ethnic shape, has roots at the ill-percieved deeds of few ill-mannered individuals, he says, commenting as the role of these anti-peace elements who attempts to orchestrate their cynical ambitions should not be undermined.
A question worth answering at this juncture, however, is: Why do such problems unfold in a time the country has been installing    strong rule of law and progressive development policies?
“The answer can be, as we may learn from past trends, few individuals start to orchestrate disorder every time progressive members of EPRDF raise issues of renewal through open evaluation.”
The only thing is that strong members of EPRDF should continue pressing ahead until the public expectations sufficiently met irrespective of those that opts for business as usual, he notes.
Then, every government echelon ought to replicate the imprint of the executive to cast out all drawbacks, Shishay says.
But for former Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP) President Lidetu Ayalew argued EPRDF has to think out outside of the box for the country has faced different problems. “This could ruin the system itself.”
It should work hard on structural correctness.  The party needs strong leader who can save it from the looming dangers, he adds.
Last week’s EPRDF statement has conveyed strong messages to the entire people underling as the   Executive Committee would continue its successful evaluations until it puts in place reliable and sustainable solution to address all the problems facing the country.
The Committee also vowed to let the people of Ethiopia know each and every development in due course. 
BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME