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Ethiopia is looking to partner with Swiss company Social General Service to certify the quality of goods. The Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise is negotiating the deal to earn international recognition as an SGS agent to attract more business according to sources.

If the deal goes through the SGS and ECAE will each be able to evaluate the quality, safety and security of products as per national and international standards, for customers of either organization.

Accordingly imports to Ethiopia can be checked for conformity to standards at the country of origin by SGS on behalf of the ECAE while the ECAE can in turn evaluate exports from Ethiopia and the region for SGS.

The fifth ICT Exhibition and Conference in Ethiopia was opened last week at the Addis Ababa Exhibition Center. The Exhibition was held under the theme of ‘ICT is the Road to Development and Transformation’.

Domestic IT colleges, government agencies working in the ICT sector, training center, and international companies from China, England and Egypt engaged in the production and development of ICT products participated in the exhibition.

The exhibition offers an opportunity for consumers and producers to develop networks and to enhance experience sharing amongst countries said Debretsion Gebremichael, Minister of Communication and Information Technology.

Ethiopia has brokered an agreement to export electricity to South Sudan according to the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.

The agreement was signed between EEPCo and the South Sudan Electric Utility Corporation represented by Mekuria Lemma, Corporate Planning Head and Ajuoi Chol, General Manager respectively. The signing ceremony was held last week at the Radisson Blu Hotel.  

The corporations agreed on interconnection project studies and installation of a transmission line to connect to the Ethiopian grid. The agreement states that the interconnection project will be carried out in two phases.

Tullow Oil, a UK company, is set to start drilling its first well in Ethiopia by the end of this year. Tullow has hired a drilling company to start operation in October according to sources.

It is to be remembered that Tullow bought a 50% stake in a concession in a South Omo Valley from Africa Oil. The concession was originally farmed out to Africa Oil by British company White Nile which has been prospecting for oil in the South Omo Valley since 2005.

Tullow was recently in the news for having struck oil in the Turkana Basin in Kenya.

The Saygin Group subsidiary in Ethiopia is set to generate as much as 100 million US dollars per annum from textile manufacturing according to the Turkish company.

Saygin Dima Textile SC, which launched operations at its Ethiopian factory just three months ago, is looking to manufacture 50 thousand meters of fabric a day for international export said Ahmed Turan Yangin, General Manager.

The company is set to take advantage of low power costs estimated at  a third of what they would be in Turkey and wages one 20th those of the home market said Yangin.

Workers earn 600 Ethiopian birr or 34 US dollars a month for a 48 work hour said Yangin who feels that the low production costs are the most important incentive for a textile investor to choose Ethiopia.

Ernst & Young Ethiopia was named a winner in the 2012 ACQ Global Awards. Global mergers and acquisitions magazine ACQ recognized E & Y as the ‘Lead Advisory Firm of the Year’ said Jake Robson, Editor in Chief with ACQ.

E & Y Ethiopia is delighted by the recognition from ACQ and feels the award validates the firm’s caliber and reputation as a notable provider of complex and sophisticated M & A services to clients across the continent said Zemedeneh Negatu, Managing Partner of Ernst and Ethiopia and Head of Transaction Advisory Services for Eastern Africa.

Winners in all categories are in effect a brand and it takes a lot time, hard work and money to build and maintain brands said Robson.

Ethiopia is holding the 2nd nationwide tax conference to develop a tax harmonization system and to enhance the capacity of tax administrations through human resource development and enhancing information technology to facilitate national economic growth.

The Ethiopian government is committed to strategic programs to strengthen the tax administration capacity and to improve the tax collection system towards sustainable economic development said Ahmed Shedi, Minister of State for Finance and Economic Development speaking at the opening of the conference held at the UN-ECA conference center. 

Ethiopian Airlines is to launch daily flight to the port of Berbera, Somaliland, starting in July 2012. The airline will start its service to the port city using its Bombardier Q400 aircraft. This latest addition of route to Berbera will increase the flight destination of Ethiopian to 43.

A recommencement of flights to the capital of Somalilad is delayed as the maintenance of the runway at Hargeisa Airport is still underway. Berbera is becoming increasingly important alternative sea trading corridor for the Horn of Africa region.

As part of its commitment to ICT development in Ethiopia and Africa, MTN is sponsoring the Best ICT Innovation Award during the 5th ICT Exhibition, Bazaar and Conference organized by Ethiopia’s in Addis Ababa this week.

One of the key goals of the exhibition is to bring multiple stakeholders together to share knowledge and experience, as well as foster partnerships through discussing various topics related to the ICT sector.  It will further serve to promote the importance of the sector amongst major policy makers, international bodies and relevant governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The Council of Ministers, Ethiopia endorsed 137.8 billion birr as the federal budget for the coming fiscal year. The budget is expected to cover government expenditure including a range of projects as well as to subsidy regional states according to the formula put in place by the House of Federation.

The Cabinet came to the decision after holding in depth discussions said the statement from the Office of the Prime Minister.

The budget establishes 26.8 billion birr of the total sum for the regular budget while 54.4 billion birr is assigned for the capital budget.