2merkato

The Ethiopian Public Procurement and Disposal Agency (PPDA) announced that it had bought 400,000 tonnes of ordinary Portland cement for 34.6 million dollars from D.G Khan Company Limited (DGKCC) of Pakistan and Global Africa of Israel.

According to the agency, the first shipment of 150,000 tonnes of cement is due to arrive in two weeks time.

The cement is to be used for the construction of housing projects in Addis Ababa, new sugar factories and roads, Yigezu Daba, director general of the Public Procurement & Property Disposal Service at the agency, said.

The Ministry of Industry accepted last week a proposal by the Ethiopian Textile and Garment Manufacturers Association to lift excise tax and to lower custom duty tax on imported textiles.

Late in August, a new study had proposed that the 10 percent excise tax imposed on imported textile products be lifted.

The study also suggested that separate taxes be imposed on finished and partially finished textile products replacing the indiscriminate 35 percent tax.

The Ministry of Industry announced that it would ban the export of crusted leather as of December 2011 due to price hikes and the scarcity of supplies.

The ban aims to control the price hike of hides and skins in the market, and as a result force out the middle men who speculate on prices according to Berhanu Serjabo, director of corporate communication of the Leather Industry Development Institute under the ministry.

The amount of the loan is estimated to be around 1.45 billion dollars.

The airlines placed orders for 10 Dreamliners in 2005 valued at 1.5 billion dollars. Originally, deliveries were scheduled for 2008-2010, which Boeing failed to meet. Now Ethiopian expects to receive the first two of ten Dreamliners next March which it ordered in 2005.