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The Public Servants Social Security Agency (PSSSA) has awarded China Jiangxi Corporation for International Economic & Technical Cooperation a contract to build its headquarters and regional office building complex for two billion Birr. The complex will have three buildings designated for the headquarters - with four basements and 19-storeys and the two buildings with four basements and 17 storeys - which will be homes for the regional offices of the Agency. The agreement was signed between Pan Weigao, chief representative and managing director of Jiangxi International Ethiopia and Daba Oria, director general of the Agency on March 16, 2017, at the premises of the Agency which is located on Queen Elizabeth Street. To be built on a 5,000sqm plot of land locating adjacent to the Central Statistical Agency (CSA), the building will have a total of 56,000sqm floor area. Along with the offices, the buildings will accommodate daycares, conference halls, cafeterias - on every other three floors - adult day care, and cinema. Initially, a total of 16 companies purchased the bidding document of which three of them were local companies and the remaining Chinese companies. Only five Chinese companies returned the bidding document with an offer ranging from 1.97 billion Br to three billion Birr. The winning company offers seven percent higher than what the engineering estimate, said Yohannes Abay, managing director of Yohannes Abay Consulting Architects & Engineers, the consulting firm of the project and has previously consulted different constructions, including the buildings of Adama Science & Technology University, Amhara Credit & Saving Institution and Bank of Abyssinia Headquarters. The Firm has been working with the Agency for the past eight months engaging with the designing of building and hiring a contractor for the project. It will also supervise the contractor until the end. Jiangxi International, which is one of the Chinese companies who step foot in Ethiopia 25 years ago, is expected to deliver the building within 30 months of the contract award period. So far, Jiangxi International has executed 50 projects including building, road and water projects. The headquarters of Wogagen Bank, the Embassy of Equatorial Guinue and Tirunesh-Beijing Hospital, to name the major projects it has executed. It is also currently undertaking the construction of a 13-storey building of the Private Employees Social Security Agency. We mainly aimed at moving our offices that are scattered in different locations paying multiple rents, Emebet Mulu, public relations director of the Agency told Fortune. Currently, the Agency, which was formulated as the Pension & Social Security Authority (PSSA) in 1963, possesses three offices at different locations, the current headquarters, Central and Addis Abeba region offices. Office rental fee is also a headache for government institutions. About 10 months ago Abraham Tekeste (PhD), minister of Finance & Economic Cooperation reported to the parilament that rental fee spikes led the government to allocate budgets for office buildings through the Ministry of Urban Development & Housing. |
