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Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said the government is aggressively working to ensure the ongoing economic growth and make the upcoming national election peaceful and transparent. 

In a press conference he gave for foreign journalists here on Friday, the premier said the government is also striving to reduce inflation. The monthly inflation rate is getting down.

Meles said the nation is expected to repeat this year the fast growing economic growth registered during the last six years.

The premier said making the upcoming election fair and transparent is one of the priority issues of the government.  

The government has done quite a good work so far , he said, citing the election code of conduct drafted based on international best practices and adopted by most of the opposition parties.

He said the code of conduct is legislated in to law and people would be required to act on the basis of the law.  

Meles said the government invited observers including from the AU, the Carter Center and the European Union but the mechanism is on the pipeline and not yet finalized.

The premier expressed hope that Africa will get the better out of the Copenhagen climate change conference though negotiations are still underway with pertinent stakeholders.  

" People have been working on something that they felt would be achievable and could take a long way in the direction of finalizing a treaty at some stage that in the near future and that is the binding political agreement" Meles said.

He said a number of consultations have been held with prominent leaders, similar consultations will continue in the days to come.  

Meles said though there is no clear agreement between the African Union and the European Union; negotiations are still to be continued for better achievements.

Ethiopia is doing quite well in terms of carbon neutral development activities though the Copenhagen summit has no time to hear the country's effort regarding the issue of climate change, he said.  

He said the nation planted trees in millions since its millennium celebrations.

Ethiopia is investing significant amount of money on wind and geothermal energy sources, he said, adding, the country is among the pioneer to use bio fuel.  

Concerning land grab by investors for large scale farming, Meles said there has not been any change of policy on the part of the government. The policy of the government with regards to agricultural development has always been based on small scale farming.

The strategy of the government also includes the possibility of the private sector playing a supplementary but vital role in the agricultural development.  

Meles noted that especially the horticulture development has registered success in the last few years.

Currently, he said large scale farms have become viable for two reasons. Expansion of infrastructure development and development in the global market are the driving force for the inflow of investors to be engaged in the sector, he said.  

PM Meles responded to a number of issues raised by journalists including CSO law, ONLF and allegation of private newspaper publishers on the occasion. (ENA)