2merkato

The city administration of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia assigned 7300 condominium houses to lucky beneficiaries through random lot this weekend.

The houses to be transferred to owners are located in Addis Ketema, Lideta, Bole, Kirkos, Nifassilk Lafto, Yeka, Akaki-Kality and Kolfe Keranyo sub-cities.

The government has invested more than 15.4 billion birr in the construction of housing since it first launched the condominium housing program in 2005 according to Engineer Haile-Meskel Tefera, State Minister for Urban Development, speaking on the occasion.

Ethiopia is to put in place a more modern meteorological information system in the new budget year as part of efforts to support the social and economic development of the country according to the Ethiopian Meteorological Agency.

The agency is working to enhance the quality of the climatology information that it offers from the 93% it currently stands at said Fetene Teshome, Director General of the Agency.

The EMA is planning to upgrade 36 existing level four stations to level three and to install eight communication radios as well as refurbishing 20 major stations and installing one station to detect pollution he said.

The Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority plans to raise more than 101 billion birr in this budget year from domestic taxes, duty taxes, customs and tax revenues.

The projected revenue, although significantly higher than previous revenue, is not over ambitious as it translates to just 11.54% of the Gross Domestic Product according to Melaku Fenta, Director General of ERCA.

The authority is preparing to meet the projection and plans to continue its efforts to broaden its tax-base, enforce the use of cash register machines and improve the capacity of the tax system and of its personnel he said.

Stratex International is showing progress in the development of its gold discoveries according to Christopher Hall Chairman of the company.

The company’s assets in Ethiopia, Turkey and Djibouti are particularly promising said Hall as part of the interim results for the company.

Stratex has had good progress in Africa as it continued work on several exciting and high potential exploration sites he added.

The Blackrock project Ethiopia has been confirmed as showing ‘extensive’ gold mineralization across four of the five key sites identified by Stratex in the area while 1000 meters of drilling work on the Shehagne project has been completed.

Ethiopia is to further promote the different varieties of coffee on the world market according to the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office.

Trademark registrations for Ethiopian fine coffee brands such as Sidama, Harar, Yirgacheffe have received recognition from an estimated 40 countries and 113 companies according to Berhanu Adelo, Director General of the EPO at a forum organized under the theme of 'Ethiopian Fine Coffee Trade Marking and Licensing Initiatives'.

Activities to increase the recognition of Ethiopian coffee varieties on the international market are underway in collaboration with Arnold and Porter and other institutions according to Berhanu.

A master plan assessing the Wind and Solar resources of Ethiopia conducted by Hydro China Corporation was revealed this week.

Ethiopia has a potential capacity of more than 1.3 million MW for wind resources and annual reserves of 2 million TWh of solar energy according to the Master Plan.

The study included various aspects including field investigations to establish solar and wind energy resources in the country as well as preparing wind and solar energy resources assessments for the Master Plan.

Dutch based shareholder of Habesha brewery, Bavaria N.V. acquired two seats on the board of the Ethiopian brewery according to the elections by the general assembly at Addis Ababa Exhibition Center this week.

The Dutch brewer will have 40% representation on the board while the other three seats on the board will be taken by former members of the brewery board, Mesfin Abi, Nahusenaye Araya and Eskinder Desta.

Bavaria will assign two representatives and the new chair of the board will be elected by the new board.

The irrigation dam being on the Omo River, Ethiopia for the six sugar factories being built in the region is progressing six months into construction.

The construction of a 840 meter long 26 meter high temporary structure to store the water has been fully completed with the water extending to a depth of 24 meters.

The permanent structure of the dam will be jointly constructed by the Ethiopian Water Works Construction Enterprise and a Chinese contractor beginning in this fiscal year said Moges Kifle, river diversion project manager.

Bombardier planes on order and in service in Africa under Ethiopian Airlines and other operators total to more than 40 aircraft according to the international aircraft manufacturer.

The Bombardier aircraft that are in service in Africa include the Q400, Q400 NextGen, C series and CRJ family of airplanes.

Some of the forty Q400 and Q400 NextGen aircraft that are under order at this time are a part of the company’s designs to deliver a projected 180 business jets in 2012 according to Eric Martel, President of Bombardier Customer Services and Specialized and Amphibious Aircraft. 

The foreign exchange black market has revived to eclipse the official exchange again. Banks are buying US dollars for 17.85 birr and selling for 18.21 birr according to official rates set by the National Bank of Ethiopia while the black market is buying a dollar for 18.5 birr.

The increase in black market foreign exchange trading rates marks a new high since the depreciation of the Ethiopian currency against the dollar two years ago,

The difference of almost 5% between the official rates and those on the black market can be expected to divert exchange transactions from official channels to more unofficial ones.