The better performance in most of the macroeconomic indicators of the second quarter of the fiscal year, would help the Ethiopian economy to grow by 7.9 percent, Planning and Development Ministry said. Inthe presence of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the Council of Ministers has commenced the second quarter performance review on Tuesday. The review began with presentations on activities undertaken, focusing on four sectoral areas of governance and justice, social, and economic sectors, it was indicated. Planning and Development Minister, Fitsum Assefa presented the economic performance report of the second quarter of the fiscal year. In her report, she pointed out that Ethiopia's economy grew by 7.2 percent in 2023. The country's economy is also expected to grow by 7.9 percent in the current 2023/2024 Ethiopian fiscal year that started on July 8, the minister added. According to her, the performance recorded in the main macroeconomic sectors during the past six months indicates the projection will be attain ed. For example, Fitsum indicated that a total harvest of 496.9 million quintals has been obtained over the past six months alone. It has increased by 65 million quintals compared to the same period last year. Sheexplained that this is one indicator that a 7.9 percent economic growth will be recorded. Similarly, the minister added that 10 percent growth was recorded in the industrial sector. In her report, she pointed out that the performance during the past six years is better in many aspects, particularly in the export sector. For instance, Ethiopia has earned over 4.5 billion US dollarsfrom service export alone. The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) sector has also registered better performances. On his part, Education Minister Professor Birhanu Nega presented the social sector performance report and he revealed better activities have been recorded in the spheres of education, health, women and social affairs as well as culture and sports. For example, he pointed out that education for the generation movement alone has helped to improve the standard of more than 14,000 schools and built more extra schools in six months. Minister of Justice, Gedion Timothewos said that Ethiopia has achieved considerable legislative activities in the justice system during the past six months. Among the better performance witnessed in the sector, the minister mentioned that the transitional justice policy document was prepared in a participatory manner. According to him, the document is expected to become effective as of its date of approval. Source: Ethiopian News Agency The Ifriqiya submarine cable in the Ain Meriem area of Bizerte was put into service on Wednesday, in the presence of officials from the Ministry of Communication Technologies and representatives of the private mobile operator Ooredoo Tunisia. Ifriqiya, which has a capacity of 200 Gbt, is connected to the main route between Marseille in France and Abu Talaat in Egypt over a length of 950 km from the Bizerte connection point, offering a high capacity of around 3 TB/s (terabits per second). In a statement to TAP, Kamel Saadaoui, Chief of Staff of the Minister of Communication Technologies, said that this new project is part of the state's strategy and represents one of the priorities in the development of the basic infrastructure of telecommunications networks, as well as an ideal infrastructure for the launch of 5th generation (5G) services. Tunisia has chosen to diversify its operators given the high cost of this type of infrastructure and the need to overcome any problems that may arise, the same source no ted, pointing out that operators are being invited to invest in submarine cables as the country has identified a need for around 6 or 7 submarine cables. Ooredoo Tunisia CEO, Mansour Rachid El-Khater, stressed that the Ifriqiya project is one of the strategic projects launched by Ooredoo to connect the northern Tunisian coast from the city of Bizerte to the city of Marseille in France in record time. Ifryqia is one of the major projects in the digital strategy and an investment magnet for major companies operating in this field, thanks to its high data flow capacity and the quality of the services offered without any interruption problems. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse