ADDIS ABABA – African scholars, who have gathered in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa as part of the fifth-year commemorative event to tribute Ethiopia’s late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, commended Zenawi’s contribution to Ethiopia’s overall development.
African scholars and senior Ethiopian government officials, attending a panel discussion organized as part of a nation-wide memorial in remembrance of the late Zenawi on Monday, have expressed Zenawi’s contribution in transforming Ethiopia’s socio-economic power.
Various studies pertaining Zenawi’s works and his legacy to Ethiopia’s development were presented during the discussion held on the premises of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA).
Ethiopia’s current national development path, the agricultural-led industrialization strategy, which is considered as Zenawi’s major legacy was praised by scholars for bringing sustainable development to Ethiopia.
The strategy has helped Ethiopian farmers to increase agricultural production to 22 quintals per hectares compared to 10 quintals twenty years ago, while economic and industrial developments are also vivid, according to Neway Gebreab, Chief Economic Advisor to the Ethiopian prime minister.
Zenawi, who passed away in August 2012 at the age of 57, is considered as a central figure in masterminding Ethiopia’s current development agenda, bringing double-digit economic growth to a country once seen as one of the poorest nations of the African continent.
Zenawi had served as president of the transitional government of Ethiopia from 1991 to 1995. He afterwards became prime minister of Ethiopia until he passed away in 2012.
The east African country is currently holding various activities as part of a nationwide fifth-year commemorative event that includes consultative meetings on various topics, planting trees and sports events.
Zenawi is among the pioneer figures that shaped Ethiopia’s current ruling political party, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
