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African countries need to concentrate on building a green economy, said Meles Zenaw,i Prime Minister of Ethiopia, speaking at the annual Conference of African Ministers held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Alternative development paradigms are necessary because of the failure of neo-liberal paradigms in African development Meles said.

The economies of African countries are largely based agricultural activities and therefore any efforts toward green development need to take in account the agrarian sectors the Prime Minister explained.

The Ethiopian Leather Industries Association announced plans to obtain 206 million US dollars from the export of leather and leather products this budget year.

It is expected that the revenue will be raised from the export of finished and semi-processed leather products according to Abdisa Adugna Secretary General of the Ethiopian Leather Industries Association.

The South African company LontohCoal shipped 27,500 tonnes of Coal to Ethiopia on Wednesday. The shipment will be arrive through Port Djibouti for Huang Shan Cement and CH Clinker.

The two Chinese companies are subsidiaries of the Guangdong Chuanhui Group which signed the two year agreement for 480,000 tonnes of coal every year with LontohCoal.

The Coal was expected to arrive in September but was held up due to transportation difficulties.

Ethiopia can expect to receive more than 511 million US dollars from the tourism industry this year according to Tesfaye Getahun, Tourism Development and Marketing Coordinator for the Tourism Ministry.

The anticipated revenue will exceed the amount from the last fiscal year by approximately 194 million US dollars said Tesfaye. This revenue is in step with the consistently increasing numbers of tourists to the country every year he added.