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Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) expressed dissatisfaction with regional leaders and project managers at Dine for Ethiopia for unrealistically expanding the scope of planned beautification projects in three locations selected by the PM himself.
Reviewing the design progress and mobilization of funding for the projects in the Prime Minister’s Office on December 16, 2020, Abiy said there are trends to expand projects beyond the original scope due to failures to capture targets. of the project.
The prime minister started the projects in August 2020, to develop three potential tourist attraction sites in the Oromia, Sur and Amhara regions.
The three sites originally selected for development through monetary contributions from various sources include Lake Wonchi and surrounding areas in the Oromia region, Koysha in the southern region, and Gorgora in the Amhara region. These selections were made based on the tourist potential of the places.
According to the prime minister, the development of the three locations would serve as an entry point for private investors who want to develop tourism facilities in those locations.
“Our approach is to create an attractive destination for the private sector to follow the suite,” said the prime minister.
He noted that the monetary aspect of the projects was not satisfactory and in a way that did not fit the ambitions of the regional governments and project managers.
In Oromia, the original plan was to develop Wonchi alone, but the plan presented to the PM expanded it to include Dendi Lake and the route between the two lakes that covers about 35 kilometers.
Similarly, the prime minister complained about the expansion of the Koysha project in the southern region to include areas in Dawro. The same interests were seen in Amhara to expand from Gorgora to the city of Gondar.
These interests should be supported, but are not expected to be part of this specific initiative, Abiy told the main committee established to lead the projects and mobilize funding.
“But the aspirations must match the reality; what we envision is to start small and go bigger, “said the prime minister.
“This project is the federal government’s project until it is concluded; It is not the project of the regions. He will give us the support we require and we will hand over the keys to the projects when they are finished. Until then, you cannot intervene and you are not allowed to intervene as this would cause delays ”, stressed the prime minister.
The prime minister said that the interests shown in the conceptual designs are not reflected in the amount of money mobilized to finance the development of these tourist attraction sites.
It was initially indicated that the projects would require a total of 6 billion birr, of which 3 billion birr is expected to be generated from public fundraising. The rest would be compared with unidentified sources.
Apart from this, there are tendencies for this project to be built with money from government coffers rather than financed through cooperation, Abiy said.
Additionally, Abiy said that while the goal was to bring all the money mobilized to a core group and to allocate the budget equally to all three projects, some regions wanted the money raised from their region to be used for developments in that region.
Although Shimelis Abdissa, president of the Oromia region, Agegnew Teshager, president of the Amhara region and Ristu Yirdaw, vice president of the southern region, were present, along with project managers and members of the national committee, none of these attendees spoke on points raised by the prime minister. After each region made presentations of the conceptual designs, as well as the possible investment alternatives in the selected attractions, the media was removed from the meeting room and the prime minister took the stage to lead a discussion on the matter.
