2merkato

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia is to purchase more than 1,400 units of note counting machines at an estimated cost of 30 million birr.

The order has been placed with the Ethiopian Trade Contacts plc which won the bid to supply the machines for 19,085 birr a machine.

The machines will be supplied by ScanCoin, a Swedish manufacturer of cash processing solutions. The SC-1500 model of machine to be supplied to the Ethiopian bank will possess accuracy enhancing features such as chain fed notes and automatic detection of double bank notes.

National Bank of Ethiopia received its first request for 250 grams of 18 carat of gold from Teklu Desta Jewellery.

The order for the minimum amount set by the central bank five months ago by the regulation compelling goldsmiths to purchase gold bars exclusively from it as of November of last year.

Teklu Desta has become the first Jeweler to purchase the gold from the central bank with other goldsmiths discouraged by the higher rates set by the bank.

A delegation of senior executives from Airbus is expected to visit Ethiopia next week. The team from the European consortium will be lead by Francois Cognard, Vice President for Sales, Middle East and North Africa.

The Airbus team will hold a press conference presenting the company’s latest Global Market Outlook for the East African airline industry and providing an update on its aircraft programs, including the A350XWB.

The Airbus marketing team is promoting the long-range A330 aircraft to Ethiopian Airlines which has already placed an order for 12 Airbus A350XWB aircraft.

South West Energy has finalized 1640 line kilometers of 2D seismic survey of is concession in the Ogaden basin of Ethiopia.

The first indigenous gas and oil company in Ethiopia, South West contracted the survey to GII a geophysics company completing the survey in nine months according to sources at the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines.

GII submitted the seismic data it collected from the South West concession in Degehabur zone of the Ogaden Basin to South West Energy and the MoM last week.

The Ethiopian Potash Corporation announced more positive drilling results from its Danakil Project, Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Potash drilled more than 6,500 meters in 26 holes with the holes located in the southwestern corner of its concession and along the western edge of the basin over an area measuring 10 by 4 kilometers.

Assays continue to show that the shallowest and highest grade holes in the basin are being drilled on the western side of the concession according to David Wahl, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ethiopian Potash.

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.