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A website, www.rootsofethiopia.com, designed to showcase and promote various community products for tourism was launched at the Radisson Blu Hotel.

The website is intended to support the plans to make Ethiopia a notable tourist destination said Tadelech Dalecho, State Minister for Culture and Tourism at the launch.

The Ministry is committed to collaborate with stakeholders in the sector to implement the Tourism Policy which seeks to make Ethiopia amongst the top 5 tourist destinations in Africa by 2020 she said.

The Revenue and Customs Authority of Ethiopia has announced the reduction of the 20 million birr capital requirement set for IT companies interested in supplying electronic cargo devices to 5 million birr.

ERCA reevaluated the former directive which required a company to have 20 million birr in capital, a five year contract with a major IT supplier, and present a performance bond worth 2 million birr to certify as a vendor for the tracking devices as many in the domestic IT sector protested the criteria.

The current amendment to the directive not only lowers the capital requirements by 75% but it also allows assets of the company to be considered as capital. ERCA also offered a bank guarantee of a similar value as an alternative to the 2 million birr insurance bond required by the directive.

Ethiopia’s National Meteorological Agency is to launch a radar system in Bahir dar to increase the agencies data collection. The system is expected to cost 4 million US dollars and is being funded by the World Bank.

The project, which will be a part of the Tana Beles Hydro Power plant, will help to monitor climate changes for the dam according to Hailu Wudineh, Director of Public Relations with the agency.

The radar system will employ state of the art technology to monitor national atmosphere and read weather patterns explained Hailu.

TAF Oil outbid several established vendors in the sector to acquire a fuel supply contract for Anbessa City Bus Services Enterprise, Ethiopia estimated to be worth almost 500 million birr.

Anbessa announced the winner of the bid in a letter addressed to TAF on the 29th of March.

The company will supply more than 26 million liters of benzene, Nafta and 500 thousand liters of other lubricants and greases over two years from the signing of the contract according to sources. It is expected that TAF will earn an estimated 484 million birr over this time.