Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Ethiopia, his Excellency Mr. Barlybay Sadykov, has visited Hawassa University to discuss future collaborations.
His Excellency was received by HU president, Dr. Ayano Berasso, the vice presidents and other HU officials.
Dr. Emebet Bekele, Director General of Office of External Relations and Communication at HU, presented a brief information about Hawassa university to the guests before the main discussion began.
Mr Sadykov said in his introductory speech that countries need to invest on the youth because they determine the future. He underlined that education makes the most important part of investing on a country's youth quoting from the Ethiopian Prime Minister his Excellency Dr. Abiy Ahmed. He also pointed out that Kazakhstan has forged an excellent relationship with Ethiopia since the beginning of their official diplomatic ties 10 years back as the only country from Central Asia to open its embassy in Ethiopia. Mr Sadykov added that Kazakhstan government has grants for scholarship on a competitive bases for young scholars to study in Kazakhstan in about 25 specialty areas and more than a hundred universities with very good research capacities in agriculture and other sciences. He remarked that the efficient researches in agriculture have greatly contributed to the resilience of Kazakhstan economy in the face of increasing climate challenges to increase productivity and large export of its wheat produce. Hence, he said, it will be quite possible to work in collaboration with the Ethiopian government and institutions such as Hawassa University on areas of common interest.
HU president, Dr. Ayano Beraso, on his part expressed his sincere gratitude for the ambassador and his crew for visiting Hawassa University and the city with the intention of forging collaborations with both the university and the city administration. He also explained the fact that both the Highlands and lowland areas in and the surrounding of Sidama regional states are quite suitable for agricultural production which will be more fruitful with certain support of research and technology. Dr. Ayano added that there are multiple factors encouraging the likely collaboration as HU is transitioning to a research university soon. He pointed out that being a research university requires half of its academic staff to hold PhD whereas the majority of the present staff are young and without PhD. He also mentioned the fact that the university needs to work on availing more scholarship opportunities for its young staff which helps in increasing its human capacity. Besides, he stated that HU needs joint works in human and material capacity building with regard to strengthening laboratories and research centers to achieve its missions of becoming among the top ten research universities of Africa in 2030. Dr. Ayano remarked that the collaboration may get a foundation with signing a Memorandum of Understanding as a starting point.
In addition, Dr. Tafesse Matewos, VPRTT, explained the priority areas of research in HU with the new structure. He also pointed out that the Bologna process looks a very good opportunity for collaboration as HU's priority areas coincided with Kazakhstan universities. He said that it's a great opportunity to work with international institutions and universities for better performance in this regard.
Dr Eng. Fisiha Getachew, VPAA, on his part underlined the fact that HU is strongly working on ensuring quality and relevance of its academic programs stipulated in the 10 years' strategic plan. He said that the academic programs at HU have similar credit system with the European and Bologna movement which makes it easy for staff and student mobility programs and running joint programs with Kazakhstan universities. He said it's a great opportunity to work with the 100+ universities in Kazakhstan to do so if the embassy helps in creating the necessary bridge.
Finally, both parties agreed to keep active communication and work on identifying relevant areas of collaboration in the near future among Ethiopian and Kazakhstan institutions as the embassy is ready to create the bridge connecting them.
