Ethiopia is to introduce a new health insurance program ratified by the House of People’s Representatives last summer. The new program will include organizations which already provide health insurance for their employees.

Permanent employees of private, governmental and non governmental organizations will contribute 3% of their salary to take part in the new health insurance program. Although organizations will be allowed the option to provide another type of health insurance they will have to participate in the program unless they have less than ten employees.

The health insurance program will be effective across the country will include coverage for families as well.

Abergale International Livestock Development plc, Ethiopia is to begin the export of fresh meat through the newly constructed cold storage area at the Mekelle Alula Aba Nega International Airport.

Abergale buys animals from farmer’s co-operatives and traders in Amhara, Afar and Tigray Regional states. The animals are housed in four different locations with veterinarian checks for quality before they are taken to slaughterhouses for export to various destinations; Angola, Egypt, the Comoros Island, and gulf countries like Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates according to Gebre Egziabher Kidanu Head of the Marketing Department of the company.

Ghion Hotel, Ethiopia is up for sale after a bid to attract joint venture investors issued by the Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervisory Agency failed to attract interest.

PPESA will also be revising the estimated minimum price set for the hotel according to Wendafrash Assefa, Head of Public Relations with the agency.

The Ghion hotel has been up for joint investment with the government for some years but the deals that have been arranged failed a couple of times.

Alta Computec plc, official dealer of Sharp products in Ethiopia, introduced new high tech printers, video conferencing systems, replacement of projections and Interactive Liquid Crystal Displays.

The new printers are multifunctional and the interactive LCDs can serve as whiteboards explained Ravinder Kumar, Deputy General Manager and Business Solutions Manager with the Middle Eastern Division of SHARP, speaking at a workshop held to introduce the products.  

The new products come in different sizes which will be significant for the Ethiopian market according to Kumar.