Engineering Associations President Says Ethiopia Needs Proactive Efforts to Provide Basic Infrastructures

Addis Ababa  December  19/2019   Ethiopia will need proactive efforts in providing basic and critical infrastructures in different sectors during the next 30 years, Joint Ethiopian Engineering Professional Associations President said.

A two-day international conference on "Ethiopia 2050: Grand challenges and opportunities"  underway in Addis Ababa.

The conference is aimed to identify the key challenges and opportunities as a starting point for national conversation among policy-makers, political and economic leaders, professionals and various stakeholders and to provide key pointers towards formulation of concrete and actionable sets of policies that could turn these challenges into opportunities.

Furthermore, the conference is expected to lead to a comprehensive report that highlights the key challenges and opportunities together with recommendations for decision-makers at all levels, it was learned.

Joint Ethiopian Engineering Professional Associations President, Tesfaye Workneh stated that as the population of Ethiopia is expected to reach 200 million by 2050 the scale of challenges that the country faces in terms of providing basic and critical infrastructures in energy, health, water, food, housing, transportation, renewable resources, among others,  are staggering.

Unless proactive efforts in predicting these massive needs are carried out early and thoughtful plans to address these are prepared accordingly, it will be hard not only to eliminate poverty but also to avoid the threat of the accompanying highly destabilizing societal and environmental problems, the president stressed.

According to him, developing countries like Ethiopia are also exposed to other challenges of global dimension that are expected to have disproportionate adverse impact on the countries.

He further pointed out that this conference would create opportunity among the participants to exchange views on the nation agenda with local and Ethiopian community abroad.

Transport Minister Dagmawit Moges said the Government of Ethiopia is undertaking various reforms to transform its economic, social and political activities.

She asked the diaspora who have ample knowledge and experience in various fields of specialization to support the development endeavors in the country.

She assured the participants that the government will make use of the recommendations and discussions of this conference as inputs in its policies and actions plans.

The conference is organized by Ethiopian Engineers in Diaspora, in cooperation with Ethiopian Academy of Sciences, Ethiopian Association of Civil Engineers, Association of Ethiopian Architects, Ethiopian Society of Mechanical Engineers, Ethiopian Society of Chemical Engineers, Ethiopian Society of Electrical Engineers, and Ethiopian Urban Planners Association.