Chairman of the Blue Party delivers a speech in Addis Ababa

July 10, 2013

Eng. Yilkal Getnet, Chairman of the Blue Party delivers a speech at the annual “Partners group” meeting in Addis Ababa American embassy compound, the meeting was organized by the U.S Embassy in Addis Ababa. Diplomats from more than 35 countries attended this year “Partners group” meeting.

Thank you Ambassador Booth for inviting me to speak here today. I am honored to be here at the U.S. Embassy.

I also want to thank all of the distinguished diplomats who are here for this meeting. I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you.

Let me say that it is a distinct honor and a special privilege for me to come before you on behalf of the Blue Party of Ethiopia to introduce our Party and share our values goals and objectives.

You might say we are the “new kids on the block” and many people in Ethiopia and abroad do not know much about our Party. That is partly because we have been in existence as a party for a very short time.

The Blue Party is very young party, by that I mean, it is a party of young Ethiopians, by young Ethiopians and for young Ethiopians. But I want to make it clear that it is also a party for all Ethiopian. As you know, the majority of Ethiopia’s population, some say up to 70 percent. Is under 35 years of age, so when we talk about the suffering. Hardship and despair of Ethiopians, we are mostly talking about the situation of the youth. Ethiopian youth today face enormous problems in their daily lives. They also experience deep anxiety everyday about their future.

Far too many of our young people carry with them not only a deep sense of hopelessness but also powerlessness. They feel they cannot change anything that affects their lives. Many of Ethiopian’s youth are denied educational opportunity which could lead to employment opportunity which in turn could lead to self-sufficiency and contribution to Ethiopia’s growth and development. Youth unemployment in Ethiopia by some estimates exceeds 40 percent there are fewer and fewer job and educational opportunities for Ethiopia’s youth as their share of the population increase’s year after year. Read more…