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Mesfin Industrial Engineering, Ethiopia is planning to build Geely cars within the next five years with the Chinese company. The manufacturer expects to commence full blown production within the next three to five years according to Habte Hadish, General Manager of MIE.

MIE is currently assembling six cars a day but is looking to begin manufacturing cars completely within the country he said.

Mesfin Engineering registered 620 million birr in revenue in the last fiscal year and has projected to earn 1 billion birr in this financial year.  The company currently assembles trucks for International Tractors Ltd, which is part of Hoshiarpur, Indian based Sonalika group.

The Ethiopian Leather Industry Development Institute launched a  leather and leather products training course in eight technical and vocational colleges in the current academic year.

The training program was launched in Addis Ababa City Administration and Oromia Regional State according Berhanu Serjebo Director of Corporate Communication with the Ministry of Industry.

The courses are intended to produce a steady supply of skilled professionals for the leader sector to support efforts to modernize the processing techniques within the sector.

Ethiopia is looking for Indian, Ukrainian and Turkish companies to supply steel billets to reduce manufacturing costs of the domestic steel sector.

The import of the billets will be facilitated by the Ethiopian Metal Industries Development Institute. The plan for the government import of the billet for the steel sector was generated within the industry said Workeneh Delelegn, Director General of the EMIDI.

The program is expected to benefit the seven Reinforcement Bar manufacturing industries currently in operation in the country.

The first Ethiopian industrial zone, Bole Lemi Industrial Zone, is to be opened in December according to the Ministry of Industry. The industrial zone is to be managed by the Industry Zone and Environmental Protection Agency, established under the Ministry of Industry. The opening had been scheduled for September.

The Bole Lemi zone could not be finalized according to schedule because of delays with the construction of roads in and out of the zone caused by the long and heavy rainy season explained Melaku Taye, Director of Corporate Communications with the ministry.  

The installation of telecom service, and 20 Mega Watt of electric power along with 80 electric poles has already been completed according to the design for the zone he explained.

A solar assembly plant to produce a range of solar powered and environmentally conscious products is expected to be launched in Ethiopia in the near future. Among the products that will be produced by the factory will be solar panels with the ability to generate as much as 60 watts of electricity, charge controllers and Light Emitting Diode lamps which are known for being electricity efficient.

An area has already been set aside for an exhibition and training center in the Oromia Regional State according to Samson Tsegaye, Country Director for The Solar Energy Foundation.

The area dubbed the ‘Solar Valley’ is located on 15 thousand square meters of land within the Tatek Industrial Park.
The foundation expects the financing to launch the assembly project to come from solar companies seeking for investment opportunities said Samson.