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Coca Cola announced that it will make its products available in plastic bottles and is finalizing the construction of the plastic containers’ production facility located inside the compounds of the company's plant in Addis Ababa.

“We will launch our products in plastic bottles soon. We are making sure that we have a well-established recycling system before we launch the products. The recycling system we will have in place will involve communities and create job opportunities,” said Greig Jansen, CEO of East African Bottling S.C. Add a comment Add a comment

Vegpro Group,  a Kenya based vegetable and flower exporter, is to expand its operations of horticulture packaging and exports in Ethiopia.

The company has several investments and package centers in various countries in Africa and is planning to setup a packaging center in Southern Ethiopia for the export market.

The Kenyan horticulture giant is one of the biggest companies supplying food to supermarkets in the UK and EU. Add a comment Add a comment

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) has approved a 600 million and 370 million Ethiopian Birr loan requests of Raya and Habesha breweries respectively.

Raya Brewery is planning to erect a brewery plant with an annual production capacity of 300,000hl, in Bohera Mountain, South of Maichew, 667km from Addis Abeba.

Raya has managed to raise 248 million Birr from the sale of shares over the past two years; 30pc of these shares were sold to BGI Ethiopia and 22percent to Dawit Gebre-Egziabher, a businessman. Add a comment Add a comment

Ethiopian government is planning to establish Construction Industry Council to regulate the construction sector. A draft regulation prepared by the Ministry of Urban Development and Construction for the past two years is set to be tabled to the Council of Ministers in a month time.

The regulation is drafted drawing on the experiences of countries such as, the U.S, China, India and Korea.

Ethiopian Airlines is planning to buy or lease up to six more 787 Dreamliner passenger jets by 2018 as it expands its destinations in Asia and South America, its CEO told Reuters.

"We are looking at another five or six by 2017/18. We always maintain a 60/40 percent balance, with 60 percent owned and 40 percent leased," Tewolde Gebremariam said on the sidelines of a global airline industry conference.

Awash International Bank has raised its paid-up capital to one billion Ethiopian birr,  double the minimum paid up-capital requirement of the National Bank of Ethiopia set to be achieved by all banks in mid 2016. AIB's total capital, and reserves currently stands at two billion birr.

In November 2012, shareholders of AIB has approved  a decision to raise the banks paid up capital to 1.5 billion birr within the next two years to help strengthen the capital base of the bank and support its expansion. Add a comment Add a comment

The ICT Center of Excellence and the Ministry of Communication and Technology launched the annual ICT Ethiopia competition on Thursday May 30, 2013 at Hilton Hotel.

"We are pleased to launch this competition, which we believe will help us achieve our goal of positioning the country at the forefront of development in ICT" Debretsion Gebremichael.

Ethiopia and Italy signed a three-year 2013-2015) cooperation framework agreement amounting to 98.9 million Euros on 30 May, 2013, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The agreement will focus on agriculture, rural development, and provision of basic services.

Finance and Economic Development State Minister Ahmed Shide and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy Lapo Pistelli signed the agreement. Add a comment Add a comment

The Addis Ababa City Administration collected more than 176 million birr from auctioning 58 plots at the third round land lease auction.

Plots allocated for residence purpose attracted the highest bid in the latest auction round opened the past week. A 173sqm plot for residence around Ayat Real Estate area bring 12,875 Ethiopian birr per sqm.

Most of the plots auctioned in Bole sub-city fetched over 9,000 birr per sqm. The least price offered in this sub city being 8,195 birr per sqm for a 175 meter square plot of land.

Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Demeke Mekonnen  invited more Chinese investment in Ethiopia while meeting with Chinese business persons in  Beijing.

The Deputy PM was in Beijing representing African Union (AU) Chairperson Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to be part of the 50th Anniversary of the Organization of African Unity/African Union,held in Beijing, China. Add a comment Add a comment