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| Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 14, 2001 |
Ethiopian Telecom Sector Not Ready for Privatization: Minister |
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Ethiopian Infrastructure Minister Kasu Ilala said that privatizing the country's telecommunication and energy sector was inappropriate, the Ethiopian News Agency reported Wednesday in Addis Ababa.
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Ethiopian Infrastructure Minister Kasu Ilala said that privatizing the country's telecommunication and energy sector was inappropriate, the Ethiopian News Agency reported Wednesday in Addis Ababa.
"The capacity of the private sector is so low, and the government is committed to developing rural Ethiopia," said the minister.
He added that telecommunication facilities would also be expanded to ensure that major towns were provided with telephone services.
"The telecommunications and electric power projects will cost about 700 million U.S. dollars," said Kasu, noting that the government was negotiating a loan with the African Development Bank.
However, observers here held that the minister's statement appeared to contradict what the country's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said in Gaborone, Botswana, last month.
Meles declared that about 30 or 40 percent of the country's telecommunication corporations would be privatized in coming years.
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