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Ethiopia’s incumbent minister, who studied at KAIST to study economic growth in Korea, received a doctorate. KAIST announced on the 8th that “Mekuria Teklemariam (50), Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, received a Ph.D. in business administration from the Graduate School of Global IT Technology at the Faculty of Technology Management in August.”
Minister Mekuria began his first semester for his doctoral program at KAIST in September 2016 and received his doctorate in four years. He said: “Korea is a country that has achieved remarkable development in all fields, including politics and economics, over the past decades.” He said: “I wanted to study academically the driving force of growth of a country with success stories for the development of Ethiopia.” .
Minister Mekuria graduated from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and received an MBA from the University of Dublin in Ireland and the Open University in England, respectively. At the age of 40, he assumed the post of Minister of Urban Development and Housing, setting a record as the youngest minister in Ethiopia’s history. During his six-year tenure, he led Ethiopia’s economic development through the development of new cities and smart cities, land management, and housing development.
He decided to study abroad four years ago to double his skills as an administrator, but the government held back. Minister Mekuria said: “I obtained permission from the government only after I was convinced that studying abroad was for my country, not for my personal career.”
Minister Mekuria persuaded the government that he would contribute to the development of his country by studying the case of Korea, which has gone from being the poorest to the most powerful, rejecting high-level courses from the Open University of the United Kingdom or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who can complete their studies in a relatively short time. The government’s nine-member committee approved Mekuria’s study abroad by vote and changed its position from Minister of Urban Development and Housing to Minister Adviser to the Prime Minister.
Over the past four years, Minister Mekuria has studied the effects of reducing the information gap on economic growth and control of corruption at KAIST, as well as policies for the spread and proliferation of high-speed Internet in developing countries. The doctoral thesis, ‘Policies for the proliferation of personalized mobile high-speed Internet by proliferation stage’, was published last month in ‘Information and communication policy’, an international academic journal in the field of information and communication. In 2018, it received two awards for excellent cooperative research from the Global Graduate School of IT Technology. Minister Mekuria was selected as the best graduate of the Global Graduate School of IT Technology.
Minister Mekuria met with President Shin Seong-cheol on 18 last month and said, “I would like to contribute to improving the competitiveness of Ethiopia University of Science and Technology by benchmarking research, administration and cooperation. between industry and KAIST academia, which I have experienced for the past four years. ” President Shin replied: “Let us seek a cooperation plan in which the knowledge and experience of KAIST, which has contributed to the development of the country, can be used in a useful way for innovation and expansion of exchanges between the two countries.” .
He cited the Saemaul Movement, the establishment of an infrastructure that can be easily accessed by anyone on the Internet, and an IT application technology education program for seniors as examples of Korean policies that he would like to apply to Ethiopia.
Minister Mekuria said, “I tried to do my part no matter where I am, not just with words, but with actions, and I watched the Korean people in an impressive way.” “I applied what I learned in Korea and KAIST to Ethiopia. I will do it.”
