2merkato

The Ethiopian Council of Ministers is considering a new energy bill that will elevate the Ethiopian Electric Agency to an authority with additional regulatory authority and revenue generating capacity. The new bill will replace the one that has been in place for the last 15 years.

The new authority will be in charge of regulating energy conservation and efficiency, to set off grid tariffs, and to license private investors in electrical work according to the initial draft sent to the Ministry of Energy.

A board of five members has been suggested for the prospective authority should the bill be ratified.

Ethiopian Airlines celebrated its 1st anniversary as Star Alliance member in Addis Ababa. The airlines is working hard to expand its market share in the international Air service market said Yeshak Zeweldi Ethiopian Alliances and Strategic Plan Deputy President speaking at the event.

Joining the international alliance has helped Ethiopian to expand its market share and currently the airline is servicing more than 70 international destinations in four continents.

It is to be that Ethiopian Airlines, is showing the Logo of star alliance on all its aircraft since last December. Star Alliance officially welcomed Ethiopian airlines in a ceremony held on December 13 in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopian hotels to meet international quality standards to meet the anticipated competition from international hotels that are being franchised in Ethiopia it was said at a two day seminar organized by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture and US based Consultancy Company, Global Hospitality Holdings.

The seminar was organized to call  independent Ethiopian hotels  to get ready for tough competition in the future specially in the areas of  management and E- marketing and the use of Information technology it was explained.
The current standard of hotels in Ethiopia will need to improve to compete with international franchises on all fronts it was noted.

Ethiopia is to implement a unified billing system for water, telephone, and electricity as of the coming January.  

The new unified billing system is to be automated. The system was designed by Global Communication Solutions, an Ethiopian IT company, and NCR and AT&T, its partners from US. The project was undertaken by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology  in an agreement signed with the companies.
 

The implementation of the project starts from the coming month and aims at modernizing the bill collection system of Ethiopia.  The three governments offices that collect bills separately, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation , Ethio-Telecom,  and Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority have completed the installation and testing of the new system.