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The hotel rating assessment project launched in Ethiopia has failed due to the absence of prior preparation according to Sisay Teklu, Coordinator of Tourism Services Competence Accreditation Directorate with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Hoteliers had their facilities rated unexpectedly as part of the requirement for a competence certificate put into place by the Ministry of Trade last year.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has been evaluating the assessment reports for the last months before coming to the decision to discard the project.

The tourist industry in Ethiopia has seen a growth of 111% to earn 253 million dollars in the first two of the current fiscal year according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The number of tourists visiting the country has increased by 44% with 321,000 visitors during the last six months.

The average length of stay for tourists to Ethiopia has also shown an increase from 4 days to 6 days.

Oracle has presented a varied range of high tech solutions for institutions making use of Information Technology in Ethiopia.

The company is confident that the software solutions that it offers will make its customers more competitive and effective on the market said Brook Fekadu, Managing Director of Boston Consulting, Oracle partner in Ethiopia.

Financial institutes in particular are exposed to a range of risks as they adopt modern technology such as ATM’s and electronic banking according to Brook.

Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa will become a mega city in 20 years according to Alan Pardoe, Head of Marketing and Communications with Airbus, speaking at a press briefing held at the Sheraton Addis Hotel.

There are currently just 39 mega cities, hosting in excess of 10,000 long haul air passengers daily with this number expected to increase to 90 over the next 20 years he explained.

Ethiopia will need very large aircraft like the Airbus A380 as Addis Ababa becomes a mega city and Ethiopian Airlines grows requiring more new aircraft noted Pardoe.

Ethiopia is to host the all African Leather Fair 2012 according to the Ethiopian Leather Industries Association. The fair will be held at the Millennium Hall at the end of this month.

The fair aims to promote the leather and leather products sector allowing industry stakeholders to network and attract international investment to meet the national developmental goals according to Solomon Getu Chairman of the ELIA Board and Managing Director of the Crystal Tannery SC.

More than 200 domestic and international firms operating in the sector and visitors from an estimated 40 countries are expected to take part in the fair said Solomon.

It is expected that coffee exports from Ethiopia will grow by at least 7% this year according to the Ethiopian Coffee ExportersAssociation.

Coffee exports from Ethiopia are expected to add up to 150,000 metric tons in the remaining two quarters of the Ethiopian financial year said Tesfaye Kenea, Acting General Manger of ECEA.

Coffee shipments in the last two quarters totaled 60,000 tons which is 35,000 tons less than what was shipped in the same period last fiscal year he said.

The decline in exports was primarily due to the two month delay in harvest because of the long rainy season and because the price of coffee in Ethiopia did not go down in proportion to the drops seen on the international market explained Tesfaye.

Source: Bloomberg

The Public Financial Enterprises Agency announced securing 3.9 billion birr in the first two quarters of the financial year in Ethiopia.

The agency exceeded the target revenue of 1.17 billion birr it had set for this period according to Dr. Sentayehu Woldemichael, General Director of PFEA.

The revenue raise is also significantly more than the 2.4 billion birr the agency was able to raise in the same period last budget year said Dr. Sentayehu.

Anbessa City Bus Enterprise, Ethiopia awarded the 3.16 million birr contract, to supply an automatic vehicle inspection machine to Gigar Trading and Technical Center.

The contract requires Gigar to supply, install, commission the machine as well as providing training for operators.

Anbessa is required to install the inspection machine following the directive from the Federal Transport Authority that mandates automation for all vehicle inspection sites.

Access Resorts reached an agreement with Metal and Engineering Corporation for the sale of Imperial Hotel, Ethiopia. The agreement is estimated to be worth 60 million birr.

The move to sale the property has followed a liquidity crunch faced by Access following a decision by the National Bank of Ethiopia that prohibits Access from borrowing from Zemen Bank with which it is closely affiliated according to some industry observers.

Moha Soft Drinks, producer of Pepsi products in Ethiopia, is set to extract 300,000 liters of ground water every day from a well drilled on the premises of its plant in the Teklehaymanot area of Addis Ababa.

The plant, which produced 17,000 cases of soft drinks per day, had stopped production over the past month due to water shortages, creating a scarcity of Pepsi products on the local market.

The shortage in Pepsi products has affected consumers in Addis Ababa and surrounding areas according to retailers.