There Would Exist No Hunger in Eritrea in 2010, President Declares

President Isaias Afwerki said that at a time when the greater portion of the Horn of Africa is expected to face acute food shortage, there would exist no hunger in Eritrea in 2010.  He made the remarks at the closing session of the two-day meeting of Regional Administrators in Massawa.

Stating that this year’s harvest was not equitable in all the administrative regions, the President pointed out that the Government has drawn up plans towards ensuring no-hunger situation nationwide through meeting the demands of those areas adversely affected by inadequate rainfall.

In its today’s session, the meeting conducted deliberations on the setting up of a task force on trade and investment permits. In an extensive briefings he gave regarding the objectives and mission of the task force, President Isaias underlined that the ultimate goal of trade and investment is to make due contribution to the growth of the national economy, and thereby improve the people’s standard of living. In this respect, he explained that unless trade and investment activities are legally and properly regulated, it could entail grave damage to the national economy through causing price hike, and thus negatively affect the people’s standard of living.

Indicating that the prevalence of illegal trade and money transfer, as well as failure to regularly pay taxes and customs duties give rise to decline in national revenue, besides escalating inflation, the President stressing the need for applying strict control mechanism in this regard. He went on to explain that new work procedures would be introduced aimed at ensuring transparency and efficient control and follow-up mechanisms with a view to promoting fair trading activities that benefit producers. To this end, previously existing bottlenecks would be rectified, in addition to revising trade and investment permit procedures, President Isaias added. Accordingly, he elaborated that all trade and investment permits presently in force would be reviewed by the task force in the year 2010.

• Eritrean Ministry of Information