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The Addis Ababa Abattoirs Enterprise, Ethiopia is planning to move the Kera abattoir from Kirkos District to a new plant in Akaki Kaliti District. The announcement was made last week inviting bidding for consultant services to undertake a feasibility study and operational planning study for relocation.

The bid document explains that the move is designed to facilitate the improvement and modernization of the slaughtering services offered by the abattoir to meet the growing demand.

The move anticipated for the past 15 years will be funded by a 900 million birr soft loan from the Agence Francaise de Developpement.

Ethiopia is to introduce a new health insurance program ratified by the House of People’s Representatives last summer. The new program will include organizations which already provide health insurance for their employees.

Permanent employees of private, governmental and non governmental organizations will contribute 3% of their salary to take part in the new health insurance program. Although organizations will be allowed the option to provide another type of health insurance they will have to participate in the program unless they have less than ten employees.

The health insurance program will be effective across the country will include coverage for families as well.

Abergale International Livestock Development plc, Ethiopia is to begin the export of fresh meat through the newly constructed cold storage area at the Mekelle Alula Aba Nega International Airport.

Abergale buys animals from farmer’s co-operatives and traders in Amhara, Afar and Tigray Regional states. The animals are housed in four different locations with veterinarian checks for quality before they are taken to slaughterhouses for export to various destinations; Angola, Egypt, the Comoros Island, and gulf countries like Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates according to Gebre Egziabher Kidanu Head of the Marketing Department of the company.

Ghion Hotel, Ethiopia is up for sale after a bid to attract joint venture investors issued by the Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervisory Agency failed to attract interest.

PPESA will also be revising the estimated minimum price set for the hotel according to Wendafrash Assefa, Head of Public Relations with the agency.

The Ghion hotel has been up for joint investment with the government for some years but the deals that have been arranged failed a couple of times.

Alta Computec plc, official dealer of Sharp products in Ethiopia, introduced new high tech printers, video conferencing systems, replacement of projections and Interactive Liquid Crystal Displays.

The new printers are multifunctional and the interactive LCDs can serve as whiteboards explained Ravinder Kumar, Deputy General Manager and Business Solutions Manager with the Middle Eastern Division of SHARP, speaking at a workshop held to introduce the products.  

The new products come in different sizes which will be significant for the Ethiopian market according to Kumar.

Ethiopia earned 71.1 million US dollars in revenue from the export of leather and leather products over the last seven months according to the Ministry of Industry.

The revenue raised in the reporting period exceeds that earned in the same period last fiscal year by more than 62% said Melaku Taye, Communications Director with the Ministry.

Southwest Energy is in the process of negotiations with the Ministry of Mines, Ethiopia to reach to a production sharing agreement for the exploration area around Jimma.

The company has been in the process of carrying out a petroleum study on the Jimma concession in collaboration with the Ministry of Mines said Tewdros Ashenafi, Chairman and Chief Executive of Southwest Energy.

Southwest has agreed to take over the Jimma block pending some things that need to be finalized with the ministry he explained.

Ethiopia’s United Bank is set to open its first branch in the capital city of Southern Sudan, Juba. The bank will be the first Ethiopian private bank to enter the newest country in Africa.

A branch in the new oil rich nation is expected to be significantly lucrative for the bank according to officials.

United is also planning to open branches in other African countries in its bid to become a competitive financial institute on the continent said Berhanu Getaneh, President of the Bank.

Sugar cane plantations are under development in Ethiopia on 6000 hectares of land in Southern Omo. The plantations are intended to serve the six Omo Kuraz Sugar factories.

The plantations are part of plans to cover 15 hectares ever year for the coming five years said Tilahun Deneke, Head of the Omo Kuraz Sugar Development Project Office.

Ethiopia has allocated 225 million US dollars for the development of each factory to be constructed by the Metal and Engineering Corp. The assessment and design of the Omo Kuraz Sugar projects is currently underway under the supervision of the Southern Ethiopia Design and Supervision Enterprise and the Ethiopian Waterworks Design and Supervision Enterprise.

The Ethiopian Quality Awards honored nine organizations with awards for quality in a ceremony held at the Hilton Hotel in the presence of Ethiopia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hailemariam Desalegn.

The excellence awards were given to Biruh Tesfa Irrigation and Water Technology, Bishoftu Hospital, Dashen Brewery, Harar Brewery, Kality Metal Factory and Kombolcha Textile SC, while Betel Teaching Hospital and Mekelle University and Kombolcha Steel Products Industry were the recipients of merit awards.