Business Insider | 18 Janaury 2016
by Armin Rosen
Women mourn during the funeral ceremony of Dinka Chala, a primary school teacher who family members said was shot dead by military forces during a recent demonstration, in Holonkomi town, in Oromiya region of Ethiopia on December 17, 2015. (Photo: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters)Ethiopia, which has averaged double-digit GDP growth over the past decade and enjoys a close strategic relationship with the US, is one of Africa’s emerging economic and political powers and an example of a country that’s improved its economic fortunes without opening its political space.
A January 11th Bloomberg News story hints at a huge problem the country might be facing moving forward. According to Bloomberg, the Ethiopian government canceled a 2010 lease that Karuturi, an India-based agricultural company, had taken out on 100,000 acres of farmland.
Despite making an over $100 million investment in the country’s farming sector, Karuturi was accused of breaking its lease agreement in developing only 1,200 acres thus far. But the company claimed that it had received waivers from the Ethiopian government in the past, and said that it did not recognize the project’s cancellation.
– See more at: http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/25681-one-of-africas-most-promising-economies-is-facing-a-fundamental-problem#sthash.09wVk7uY.dpuf
