2merkato

The city administration of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia announced plans to build 90,000 condominium houses over the next three years as part of its plans for development.

The project is expected to benefit an estimated 450,000 residents of Addis Ababa according to Kassa Wolde-Senbet, Head of the Communication Affairs Office with the City administration.

The housing development project has been able to build more than 97,000 condominium houses at more than 100 locations with 71,000 condos transferred to homeowners  up to last Ethiopian year noted Kassa.

Ethiopia signed an agreement to cooperate in air services with Singapore last week according to the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority.

The Air Services Agreement will enable airlines from both countries to operate specified numbers of cargo and passenger flights between Ethiopia and Singapore as well as to other countries.

The agreement was signed by Getachew Mengeste, Ethiopian State Minister for Transport and Josephine Teo, State Minister for Finance and Transport, Singapore.

Ethiopia has secured 133.7 million USD from the export of horticultural crops in the last seven months, the Ethiopian Horticulture Development Agency (EHDA) said.
Agency Director General Haileselassie Tekie said that the country earned the foreign currency from the export of 1.1 billion flower stems and 72.8 thousand tons of fruits, vegetables and herbs in the last seven months (From July 2011-Jan. 2012).

More than 107.5 million USD was obtained from the export of flowers to the international market, while the balance was secured from the sale of fruits, vegetables and herbs.  

The foreign currency the country earned from the sector in the stated period has increased by 22.7 millions USD in revenue compared to last year same period.
The Netherlands, Germany, England, Belgium, Russia, Japan and Middle East counties are among the major recipients of the products.

The demand for the horticultural products’ of Ethiopia is very high and thus the Agency is doing market promotion and diversification activities.   

Incentives and the necessary support are being provided by the government of Ethiopia, the number of foreign and local investors engaged in the sector is on the increase, the Director General said.

Ethiopia has recently started to export organic banana to Saudi Arabia market, which the project is supported by Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), is an important step to ensure the growth of horticulture industry in the country.

More than 105 horticulture producer and exporters companies are operating in the country, of which over 70 per cent of them are foreign and joint venture, it was learnt.

Source: This news article was prepared and sent to 2merkato.com by Mekonnen Hailu, Ethiopian Horticulture Development Agency (EHDA)'s senior communication expert.

Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia’s flag carrier, made a firm order for five Q400 NextGen Bombardier aircraft confirmed Bombardier Aerospace.

Three of the five airplanes are to be operated by Ethiopian Airlines affiliate ASKY, the Togolese airlines, while the other two will remain with Ethiopian.

According to the list price of the Q400 bombardier aircraft the purchase is estimated at a total of 160 million US dollars.

Total Ethiopia Managing Director Antoine Tourand has been replaced by Marc De Lataillade, after a two and half year term.

Lataillade comes to Ethiopia with 17 years of experience with Total, with his last position being executive vice president for Total World Group, West Africa.

Tournand inaugurated the new and modern Total station at Ayat Village before leaving his position in Ethiopia.

The National Accreditation Office of Ethiopia is ready to raise awareness in the agricultural, health and industrial sectors according to Araya Fesseha Director General of the ENAO.

Accreditation is a new concept in Ethiopia and requires aggressive promotion to raise awareness amongst stakeholders he said.

The accreditation office has conducted training events in Addis Ababa, and the Amahra and Tigray regional states said Araya. Further training will be done in Dire Dawa, Oromia, and the South regional state.

The Development Bank of Ethiopia extended a loan of 1.42 billion birr to Saygin B.M Technology Group LLC, a Turkish company expected to establish a cable manufacturing plant.

Saygin requested a loan of 2.1 billion birr, making it the single largest loan request for a bank loan from a private company operating in Ethiopia.

The Turkish company intends to manufacture optical fiber and power cables said Tadesse Hatiya, Vice President of Credit Services at the Development Bank of Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Revenue and Custom Authority allowed 12.3 billion birr in duty free privileges in the last two quarters of the fiscal year in Ethiopia.

The duty privileges amounts to 35.3% of the total revenue raised by the authority in the last six months according to Efrem Mekonnen, Head of the Communications Department with ERCA.

ERCA extends duty free privileges to members of the diplomatic community and investors in pre specified strategic sectors.

The tax authority in Ethiopia is maintaining its drive to register businesses for value-added taxation across the country.

In Oromia Regional State businesses are being asked to install cash registers for the first time while regional towns are coming under the scrutiny again.

In Adama, Bishoftu and Duken out of an estimated 1, 151 businesses identified for VAT registration only 28.3% have complied by January of 2012.

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia is to purchase about 420 Automatic Teller Machines and 600,000 electronic payment cards at an estimated cost of 100 million birr.

Suppliers from China, India and the United states were among those that tendered technical offers to deliver the ATM’s required by the CBE.