2merkato

The 5th Agriculture Fair was opened in Ethiopia under the theme of Agriculture Development for Food Self-Reliance. The 1st Tourism Travel Fair was also launched simultaneously under its theme of ‘Tourism for Economic Development'.

The agricultural sector is very important to the overall economic development of the country and it is hoped that the exhibition will contribute to the national effort to increase income and achieve national food security according to Tefera Derbew, Minister of Agriculture speaking at the opening.

The exhibition is also expected to promote trade and investment in addition to facilitating experience sharing amongst participants he said. The fair is intended to create a platform for networking between manufacturers, suppliers and distributors and other stakeholders explained Teffera.

Ethiopia is in the process of finalizing preparations to offer 24 hour power supply for manufacturing industries in Addis Ababa said Miheret Debebe, Chief Executive of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.

The country currently has the installed potential to produce almost 3000 MW of electricity of which more than 40% is allocated to the industrial sector and 30% goes to the service sector it was said at a consultative deliberation held between representatives of major industries and experts from the Ministry of Water and Energy and the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.

The Federal Sports Commission, Ethiopia officially revealed that the JADAW firm are the winners of the bid to prepare the architectural design of the new stadium to be built in Addis Ababa.

The stadium to be constructed in the area around the old Imperial Hotel is expected to seat 60,000 people and will be built at an estimated 1.6 billion birr according to the architects.

A detailed cost analysis will be revealed in the future according to the announcement by the commission.

Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia’s flag carrier, is set to launch flights to Sao Paulo Brazil as of the coming December. The flight will be the first regular flight to South America for airline.

The Airline will commence flights three times a week to Sao Paulo using the Dreamliner aircraft that Ethiopian anticipates receiving in August and September from manufacturer Boeing.

The Sao Paulo flight will be operated through Lome, Togo where the Ethiopian affiliate ASKY airline is based according to Tewolde Gebremariam, Chief Executive of the airline.

The International Monetary fund issued a statement praising the macroeconomic and general development performance of Ethiopia in the last year after carrying out the recent Article IV Consultation.

The IMF delegation lead by Michael Antingi-Ego announced that the execution of tight monetary policies by the central bank including efforts to contracting the money supply and sterilizing foreign exchange has contributed to decelerating the rate of inflation significantly.

The report cited the National Bank’s initiative to reduce the gross foreign exchange reserves to cover less than two months of imports from the considerably high reserves in the last fiscal year which had been an inflationary principle.

Ethiopia is to organize a nationwide ICT competition for the second time announced the ICT Excellence Center of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

The registration for the ICT competition will remain open until the 7th of July and winners will be awarded a range of prizes it was announced.

The competition is intended to create an opportunity for people with intellectual properties to compete, promote their work and form commercial networks according to the ministry.

Ethiopia save an estimated 20 million US dollars on oil imports by blending more than 32.8 million liters of ethanol with benzene said the Ministry of Water and Energy.

A major percentage of the ethanol produced within the country in this financial year was used for blending with Benzene according to Bizuneh Tolcha, Director of the Public Relations and Communications Directorate of the ministry.

The percentage of ethanol to benzene in the blending process has been increased from just 5% three years ago to 10% in the last year allowing Ethiopia to save more than 20 million IS dollars on oil imports said Bizuneh.

Ethiopia is to privatize two more enterprises with the board of the Privatization and Public Enterprises Agency approving the offers made for Caustic Soda SC and the warehouses of Faffa foods.

Caustic Soda will be purchased by MCC Imports for 14.8 million birr and the warehouses of Faffa foods will be sold to a Nejib Abba Biya, Ethiopia Canadian Businessperson, for 414,100 US dollars.

It is to be remembered that the PPESA is seeking interested bidders for two of the five enterprises it had offered for privatization in the same lot as Caustic Soda and the Faffa foods.

Ethiopia is drafting a new regulation to control the raw hide and skins market according to the Ministry of Industry.

The new regulation will aim to create harmony between the market chain and the circulation of raw hides and skins to solve challenges created by speculation and consequent increases in price that is affecting the flow between tanneries and suppliers.

The regulation being drafted by the MoI in collaboration with other stakeholders in the sector such as the Leather Industry Development Institute is expected to be submitted to the House of People’s Representatives by the end of the current financial year.

Ethiopia is to farm out the disbursement of private sector pensions to five micro finance institutions and a private bank starting on July 8th 2012.

The following micro finance institutions will be serving regional areas; Dedebit Credit and Savings, Oromia Credit and Savings, Omo Microfinance, Amhara Credit and Savings and Dire Microfinance.

The private bank under contract to the Private Organization Employees Social Security Agency will be servicing the Addis Ababa area.