Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn said the amount of resources Ethiopia has been spending on the development of higher learning institutions has been growing steadily.

Hailemariam made the remark while opening the International Partnerships in Higher Education Conference that opened here on Monday under a theme: "Higher Education for Development".

The Deputy Prime Minister said the amount of money being spent on the development and expansion of higher learning institutions has increased significantly over the past years.

He said the number of universities existing in the country which was only two 20 years ago has now reached 32.

Hailemariam said the amount of budget in which the government allocates for the education sector accounted for 18 per cent of the country's total budget. He said this shows how the government gives special attention to the development of education.

He said the government has been spending a huge amount of money on education development by taking into consideration that the renaissance of Ethiopia could not be realized with out the development of education.

The Foreign Minister expressed the commitment of the Ethiopian government to work together with the American government and universities to further build the capacity of higher learning institutions in Ethiopia.

Speaking on her part, Representative of American Ambassador Marry Catharine Phee said the partnership between the higher learning institutions of America and Africa would further be consolidated

The support being provided by American higher learning institutions to their African counterparts has helped to build the capacity of the latter.

She expressed that the government and people of America would further strengthen America-Africa education partnership.

Addis Ababa University President, Admasu Tsegaye said on the occasion that the conference aims at enabling higher learning institution of Africa and America to work in partnership for education development.

Various research papers prepared by professionals from the World Bank and of higher learning institutions will be presented in the course of the three-day conference.

The conference was jointly organized by the Addis Ababa University and USAID. [ENA]

Provoked by the economic crises in the rich world since 2008, two shadows are cast on the multilateral trading system, institutionalised as the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Rich countries have increasingly ....... FULL STORY

Ethiopia’s annual inflation rate dropped to 32 percent in January as food-price increases slowed, the Central Statistics Agency said. The inflation rate dropped from 35.9 percent in December, the Addis Ababa-based agency ....... FULL STORY

[News] South Sudan and Ethiopia’s governments signed a memorandum of understanding to build an oil pipeline via Djibouti to facilitate oil exports, South Sudanese Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said....... FULL STORY

[News] The International Coffee Organization on Wednesday cut its forecast for the global coffee crop in 2011/12 to 130.9 million 60-kg bags, down from a previous estimate of 132.4 million. The ICO said the move partly reflected a ........ FULL STORY

Ethiopia and China here on Saturday signed seven economic and technical agreements to further strengthen the bilateral cooperation between the two countries. Accordingly, the two governments signed two ......

The recently elected board of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association (ECCSA) has passed a historic decision. The board has solved the dispute about sharing the chamber headquarters with other four associations. ......