2merkato

The 'Colors of the Nile International Film Festival', organized by the collaboration of the Ethiopian Film Makers Association and the Blue Nile Film and Television Academy is being held in Ethiopia between the 7th and the 11th of November.

The festival is going to include a range of activities and training opportunities according to Abraham Haile, President of the Festival. A range of workshops designed to develop the talents of Ethiopian filmmakers will also be part of the festival he said.

It is expected that 28 African countries will be represented in the 58 selected movies that will be a part of the festival. The festival was opened by the Alan Gomez film ‘Tey’ which has already won different awards at several international festivals.

The festival will place films in competition in different categories such ‘Documentary’, ‘long Story’ and ‘Short Story’ said Abraham.

The Ethiopian oilseeds, spices and pulses export sector has registered a revenue growth of 31 percent. Export from the sector has grown from 539 thousand tons to 608 thousand tons in the previous financial year resulting in corresponding increasing in revenue from 506.2 million US dollars to 663.6 million US dollars.

The Ethiopian oilseeds, pulses and spices export sector is showing steady growth alongside other exports according to Kebede Chane, Minister for Trade. The ministry anticipates that overall revenue from export revenue will reach 10.4 billion US dollars by the end of the development program he noted.

It is to be remembered that the country earned 470 million US dollars from the export sector in the previous sector with the oilseeds sector recording the best performance. The Ministry of trade plans to increase the revenue earned in the current fiscal year to 626 million US dollars.

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.

Nib International Bank S.C, Ethiopia announced that it had made a net profit of 286.2 million birr in the last financial year.
The bank noted that this revenue showed an increase of 16% from the revenue the bank had earned in the previous financial year.

The profits earned by the bank in the last fiscal year are due to the successful efforts it has exerted in its service according to Amerga Kassa, President of the Bank. The bank still has areas that are in need of improvement to maintain this performance or even to surpass it he noted.

The profit earned by the bank ,which is an all time high, in spite of the foreign exchange shortage and the National Bank directive establishing that private banks invest 27% of their loan disbursement in National Bank bills.

The Ethiopian Roads Authority is set to implement a five year ‘Bridge Improvement Master Plan’ to help archive information on bridges and to register the standard of service in the country.

The project is expected to cost above 394 million birr according to Samson Wondimu, Head of Public Relations with the authority.

About 20 million birr has been allocated for the construction and maintenance of bridges in this fiscal year he said.

A high level business delegation from India made a visit to Addis Ababa last week. The delegation included representatives from 23 businesses many of whom were from the commercial capital of India, Mumbai.

Most of the businesses represented seem to be interested in capital intensive long term investment in a range of sectors such as sugar, energy, and mining.

The visit from the business delegation was organized through the Ethiopian Consulate in Mumbai.

Ethiopia shares the model of the Indian export driven economic strategy especially in light of the similar socio0economic and cultural settings shared by the two countries said Mulu Solomon, President of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce, and Sectoral Association.

The plan to build a new international airport proposed by the Ethiopian Airports Enterprise has been given the green light by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

It is expected that the Ministry of Transport will table the proposal to the Council of Ministers for its endorsement to be forwarded to the Parliament according to an official with the administration. It is expected that the project will be financed by a loan from the Chinese EXIM Bank he added.  

The Airports Enterprise has been conducting a study on the launch of a new international airport for the past two years.
he Ethiopian Airports Enterprise announced that it expects to raise more than one billion birr from the various services that it renders in the new budget year.

Ethiopian footwear manufacturer soleRebels has launched the first of a series of stand-alone retail stores in Kaoshinug, Taiwan, according to a company press release.

The opening of the store is an extremely exciting opportunity in a vibrant market allowing the brand to showcase it products said Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, Founder and Chief Executive of the company.

The opening of the store anchors the company in Asia which has a significant booming Asian retail footwear market according to the company press release. The company expects to open 30 soleRebels retail stores in Taiwan with three of these stores to be opened by the end of this year.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Defense is to launch a financial wing. The ministry is undertaking preparations to launch banking operations during the current fiscal year according to Siraj Fegessa, The Minister of Defense.

The plan to launch the Army Bank was announced on Wednesday while Siraj presented the quarterly performance report and the current financial year to the Foreign Defense and Security Standing Committee of the Parliament.

The Ministry has established a steering committee established to discuss the issue with the National Bank to execute the plans for the Army bank said Siraj. 

ICM won the bid to construct the new cargo terminal for Ethiopian Airlines located at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.

The bid was between the German ICM and a Chinese company and the former won the contract because they proposed the best design and financial offer said Tewolde Gebremariam, Chief Executive Officer. ICM is expected with the well known Varnero Construction firm according to Tewolde.

The new state of the art cargo terminal can handle 1.2 million tons. It is expected that the project will be completed in two sections each with the capacity to hold 600 thousand tons. The first phase of the construction will cost an estimated 110 million Euros.