By Andualem Sisay
Indicating that one of the strategies of some Egyptian leaders was to threaten Ethiopia from building dams of the Nile, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia told parliamentarians this morning that his government will not be frightened and stop developmental activities on the Nile River.
According to Meles, blocking Ethiopia from getting loans and aid for projects, which will be implemented on the Nile River, was also another strategy of Egyptians leaders’ in the past.
In his response to the questions raised by parliamentarians, the Premier also noted that his government would neither be frightened of Egyptian’s attack and stop implement projects on Abay River, which contributes 85 percent of water to the Nile River nor sit and expect foreign funding.
Meanwhile, referring to assessment made recently by an Egyptian newspaper, Meles indicated that most of new generation Egyptians support the idea of fair, equitable utilization of the Nile River.
Concerning the Sudan, which also declined to sign the cooperative agreement on the Nile River after discussing the issue for the past ten years, Meles indicated that one of the interviews President Al-bashir of Sudan recently made also shows his support for the idea of fair and equitable utilization of the water among Nile riparian countries, which Ethiopia has been promoting.
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In his report, which covers eight months progress of the fiscal year 2010/11, in addition to political affairs, Meles also commented on economic issues and indicated that the country is expected to grow 11.2 percent at the end of the current fiscal year that ends July 7, 2011.
According to Meles, the fact that over the past eight months the export of the country has grown by 48 percent while import rose by only 14 percent is a positive trend for Ethiopia which has been dealing with huge amount of international trade deficit for many years.
“…We can not easily reverse the trade imbalance in the coming five years, meanwhile the progress is good towards achieving that target at some point,” he said. Commenting on the status of the foreign currency reserve of the country, he also indicated that the country has now a reserve, which is enough for 2.7 months of import from 2.1 months of import eight months ago. 
