June 19, 2018 Addis Ababa 57th Regular Council of Ministers Meeting Decisions The Council of Ministers discussed various issues in the 57th regular meeting held today. 1. The council first discussed three financial support and loan agreements signed with the International Development Association. The first is a four hundred and thirty seven million four hundred thousand (437,400,000) SDR loan agreement for the implementation of sustainable and comprehensive development policy. The second is a loan agreement of one hundred forty-five million five hundred thousand (145,500,000) SDR to be used for the implementation of the community-based land management program. The third is a fifty-four million six hundred thousand (54,600,000) SDR loan agreement for the implementation of the Climate Change Irrigation Sustainable Productivity Project. The council confirmed that the three loan agreements are in line with the credit policy of our country and unanimously decided to forward the loan agreement approval bills to the House of Representatives. 2. Next, the council discussed the proposed draft regulations to determine the service fees for the various services provided by the Ministry of Water and Energy, Ethiopian Archives and Library Service and Educational Assessment and Examination Service Institutions. The draft regulations have been prepared and submitted to the council so that the institutions can cover the costs covered by internal revenue with the service fees collected from the service users. After extensive discussion on the draft regulations, the council unanimously decided to add resources and make them effective from the day they were published in the Federal Negarit Gazette. 3. The council then discussed the membership approval bill for the New Development Bank Establishment Agreement. As it is believed that Ethiopia's joining the New Development Bank as a member will enable it to find alternative financial sources for national development finance, infrastructure support and macro-economic stability and will strengthen its ties with the South-South financial systems, the bill has been prepared to approve the bank's establishment agreement. After extensive discussion on the issue, the council unanimously decided to forward it to the House of People's Representatives by adding resources. 4. Another agenda discussed by the council is the construction industry draft policy. As the construction industry plays an important role in the development of our country, the construction industry policy was issued in 2006 and has been implemented for the past years. Thus, although some changes have been recorded in the industry, there was a wide gap in terms of the technological development, urbanization, and infrastructure needs of our world, so the policy was prepared to realize a prosperous Ethiopia by increasing the productivity and competitiveness of the sector, adapting and integrating existing legal frameworks, and utilizing the sector's development potential. After extensive discussion on the policy, the council unanimously decided to implement it from June 19, 2018 after it was approved by the council. 5. Finally, the council discussed the draft urban development policy. In the urban development policy that was issued in 1997 and has been in operation for the past two decades, to solve the problems of good governance in cities, to make cities economically competitive, to provide efficient services, to strengthen rural-urban and urban-city connections, to expand infrastructure and various manufacturing and service-providing institutions, the results have been recorded, but there were also gaps. Urban development policy has been prepared in a new form for development. After extensive discussion on the policy, the council unanimously decided to implement it from June 19, 2018 after it was approved by the council. ///