Addis Ababa, October 8 (WIC) – President Girma Woldegiorgis has called on the public to join hands and scale up efforts to attain the annual target.
President Girma made the call while opening the 3rd year joint session of the House of Peoples’ Representatives (HPR) and House of Federation (HoF) here on Monday.
Ethiopians need to exert utmost effort to achieve the target set in the budget year and maintain economic growth registered over the past 9 years under the leadership of the late PM Meles Zenawi, who also built a system that helped the nation to exercise peaceful transition of power.
The late PM Meles had contributed a lot for the prevailing democracy, peace and successive economic growth registered in the country over the past decades, he said.
Ethiopia has maintained a double digit economic growth since the beginning of the implementation of the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP). It has registered 11.7% in 2003 EC.
Owing to the efforts made to address housing problems, more than 300,000 houses were built over the past seven years. The construction of 100,000 low cost houses is also underway in Addis Ababa, he said.
As a result of the efforts made to alleviate unemployment, more than 1.1 million jobs were created in various sectors last budget year, the president said.
President Girma also highlighted the success gained in the infrastructure developments, particularly in the electric power, road, railway, and telecommunication sectors, among others.
Regarding telecommunication, the president said the number of mobile phone subscribers has reached to over 18 million. He also underscored the need to carry out expansions to improve the quality of the service.
According to the president, the construction of Gibe 3 hydroelectric and the Grand Renaissance dams is going as per schedule, thus enabling the nation to attain its plan to raise electricity generation capacity to 10,000 MW by the end of the GTP period.
In line with the GTP, the construction of 10 sugar factories is underway in various parts of the country, he said. Some 70,000-km road would also be built during the GTP period.
Following the efforts made over the past 10 years, poverty line has declined to 29.6% from 38.7%, while inflation fell to 21 % to 40 % last budget year, he said.
Remarkable results were registered towards the expansion of education and health facilities, which the latter contributed child and maternal mortality to decline, the president said.
He said the government has taken various measures to ensure the rights of citizens, to strengthen democracy and to bring about good governance in the country.
President Girma finally reiterated government’s commitment to work jointly with neighboring countries and the people of Ethiopia.