Saturday, 26 June 2010 16:51
Ethiopia requested the member states of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) to have a long-term vision on the 17th Nile Council of Ministers’ (NILE COM) ordinary meeting held at Addis Ababa Hilton today.
The request was in accordance with the theme of the two day meeting which is “Working Together for a Better Future.
Ministers of eight riparian states were present except from Burundi. The meeting started late in the morning and Asfaw Dingamo, minister of Water Resources, told The Reporter that the reason for it was attributed to some technical difficulties.
On the opening session Asfaw said that the member states should not focus on their differences but should converge on having a long term vision. The disagreement so far do not imply that the negotiations were a failure, he added.
The outgoing chairperson of the NILE COM Prof. Mohammed Naser El Din Allam, minister of Water Resources and Irrigation of the Arab Republic of Egypt on his part stressed that the focus should be on establishing the Nile Basin Commission (NBC).
The guest of honor Ambassador Teshome Toga, speaker of the House of Peoples’ Representatives (HPR) believed that the focus should not be on concentrating on the differences. He said that rationally resolving the issues should be the major priority.
The NBI investment programs now have more than one billion USD of investment under implementation or advanced stages of preparation, with billions more in the pipeline, Barbara Miller, Nile Program Coordinator of the World Bank said.
Source: The reporter
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