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Emirates airlines announced a series of new deals for Ethiopian passengers including new special fares for flights out of Addis Ababa. The new fares represent several tiers of savings that extend to 30% reductions.

The offer is open to business and economy classes of tickets booked on Emirates between September 1st and October 15th 2012 for travel period between September 20th and December 5th 2012 and cover eight popular destinations Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Emirates is offering promotional fares to eight destinations: Dubai in the Middle East, Chennai, Hyderabad, Karachi and Bangkok in Asia and Paris, Milan, Rome in Europe.

The African Development Bank approved a 251 million US dollar loan for Ethiopia. The two parties signed the loan agreement last Friday at a ceremony held at the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.

The loan agreement was signed by Ahmed Shide, StateMinister for Finance and Economic Development 
and Lamin Barrow, the African Bank’s country representative in Ethiopia.

The loan is intended to finance phase three of the ‘Promoting Basic Services’ program according to the AfDB. The fund will offer budget support to Ethiopia over three fiscal years, to offer block grants to regions in efforts to enhance access to decentralized service delivery in a range of sectors including agriculture, health and education as well supporting improvement to infrastructure such as sanitation, roads and water supply.

Ethiopia’s nominal GDP for the current year is expected to reach 906 billion birr in the current year based on projections of 10% real GDP growth and 16% deflator according to the mid-year macroeconomic review undertaken by Access Capital.

The potential for growth in the period is positive with a normal and above normal rainfall recorded by the Ethiopian Meteorological Agency for most crop growing parts of the country during the main rainy season noted the report.

Continued investment in large scale infrastructure and strong Foreign Direct Investment flow into the country in addition to by and large optimistic activities in the service sector all contribute to economic expansion it said.

Sony announced nine new products: Cyber-shot™ cameras including the WX series (DSC-WX100, WX150), HX series (DSC-HX200V, HX20V, HX10V), W690, TX series (DSC-TX20, TX66), and H series (H90), which offer superior optical performance in some of the world’s slimmest and lightest cameras.

Each of the new nine cameras are designed to exceed the needs of amateur photographers and professionals at any locations.
The new Cyber-shot™ compact digital cameras are currently available on the Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda.

The new products will push the boundaries of digital photography by creating cameras to serve the demands of a dynamic market and Sony customers seeking high performance, style, convenience and durability.

The Ethiopian Private Organization’s Employee Social Security Agency has collected more than 800 million birr in the first year that it had been in operation according to the Ethiopian Revenue and Custom Authority.

The authority has been able to collect over 800 million birr in pension contributions from private organizations according to Melaku Fenta, Director General of ERCA in a statement to the press in regards the performance of the authority.

Private companies have been handling payment of pension contributions through the revenue collecting offices.

Ethiopian entrepreneur Bethlehem Tilahun, founder and managing director of soleRebels has been selected as one of the twelve women to watch my Forbes magazine.

Forbes magazine selected twelve up and coming women who are exhibiting the potential to climb to the ranks of the most powerful women in the world in the coming year as supplement to its annual World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list.

The twelve women include Robin Roberts, Co-Anchor of Good Morning America, Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge and Sara Blakely, founder of iconic apparel company Spanx! as well as Bethlehem. 

Ethiopian Airlines embarked on the first inaugural passenger service flight to Addis Ababa within 24 hours of receiving the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner according to Mxi Technologies, a leading aviation maintenance management software.

Ethiopia is committed to the vision of modernizing its fleet and maintenance and the first 787 flight represents this commitment according to Mr. Mesfin Tasew, Chief Operation Officer of Ethiopian Airlines.

Maintenix has allowed the airline to support its historic entry into service with confidence to maintain the next generation aircraft through automatic real-time confirmation of airworthiness in line with OEM guidelines and the maintenance plans of the airline in receiving the airline and embarking on the first flight he said.

The city administration of Addis Ababa is preparing to transfer kebele administered shops and recreational centers to consumer associations in the next six months.

The City Council issued a regulation to enact the transfer of the businesses in July. The establishments to be transferred too consumer associations have a collective capital of 104 million birr and fixed assets of 35.45 million birr and more than 64.85 million birr in cash.

The transfer are expected to resolve challenges allowing the establishments to be managed as publicly responsible, accountable and transparent institutions said Mulugeta Mengistu, Head of the Cooperatives Development Office.

Revenue from flower exports grew to 212.5 million US dollars in Ethiopia in the last financial year. The revenue is fourteen percent higher than the money earned in the previous fiscal year because flower exports has grown to 2.1 billion stems from 1.8 billion stems.

The increase in revenue is attributed to the implementation of newly enacted control mechanisms.

The new mechanisms put in place eliminated the previous system whereby custom officials just counted the stems in selected boxes to estimate exports allowing a loophole for exporters to retain some retain some revenue outside of the country.

Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia died on the night of August 20th from a sudden infection according to a statement released by the Council of Ministers. He was 57 years old.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had been undergoing treatment for a protracted illness abroad for some time and has not been seen in public in the last month.