Urban Development and Construction Minister Briefs Ethiopians on Urban Land Lease Holding Act
April 4, 2012 - LONDON
A cross-section of Ethiopians from all over United Kingdom converged at the Ethiopian Embassy in London to hear H.E. Ato Mekuria Haile, Minister of Urban Development and Construction, explain the salient features and provisions of the new Urban Land Lease Holding Act.
The Minister started by explaining that the basis for the new proclamation rested on three fundamental pillars of principle: to deal swiftly with the back-log in the nation’s infrastructural development, to expedite the transformation of the nation’s economy from agriculture to industrialization, to ensure that society derives dividends from public ownership of land. The Minister stressed that the new act is also designed to address the shortcomings of land administration in relation to human resources, to ethics and to lack of capacity, in addition to modernising the technical side of the system of land management, ensuring that rules and regulations are user-friendly and to put in place a management structure that can effectively address the demands of land administration.
The fact that land is under public ownership has proved to be advantageous to the implementation of the ongoing Growth and Transformation Plan which is gaining momentum and instilling in people’s mind a great sense of hope of a better tomorrow.
Minister Mekuria reminded the audience of the need to redouble efforts at wealth creation by citizens, and investors in the life of the current five-year Growth and Transformation Plan. These efforts, he explained, must include the creation of a favourable economic environment so that millions of small and medium enterprises can flourish alongside infrastructural development. To this end, the Minister said that the government has allocated large plots of land for industrial zones in Dire Dawa, Kombolcha, Hawassa, and in the Addis Ababa vicinity. This new act’s contribution to the growth of the national economy will be immense.
The Minister highlighted one of the reasons for introducing the new act was to guarantee that Ethiopia’s nations and nationalities continue to benefit from access to education, health, transport and other forms of infrastructural development.
In his opening remarks, H.E. Ambassador Berhanu Kebede reminded the audience of the need to rally behind the new Act as it has a positive impact on the on-going GTP.
The Minister answered in detail questions on all aspects of the new act raised by the audience.
For further information please contact the Ethiopian Embassy Press Office on 0207 838 3883 or email info@ethioembassy.org.uk.