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Ethiopian Airlines began direct flights from Ethiopia’s northern regions to the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Thursday. It was announced that the new flight will takeoff to Khartoum from Bahir Dar, capital to the Amhara Regional State and Tigray's Regional State Capital, Mekelle.

Ethiopian Airlines announced that the new flight services will run four days a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays and Sundays using Bombardier Q-400 Aircraft.

The MIDROC Ethiopia Technology Group announced more than 1.3 Billion birr in profits the past fiscal year, on Sunday.

The group has been able to achieve such tremendous success because of the dedication of its employees said Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi Chairperson of MIDROC. The MIDROC Group will support national efforts towards growth and development by creating new companies and expansion he added.

The Indian agribusiness, Karuturi Global, is to outsource 20,000 hectares of land it had leased in Gambella Regional State to Indian farmers. The farmers are to cultivate the land on a profit sharing basis at a ratio of 65:35.   

The company plans to sub contract the land and necessary infrastructure to farmers who specialize in the cultivation of specific crops according to a senior Karuturi official. Karuturi has already had discussions with Punjabi farmers interested in this venture earlier this year, as part of its plans for expansion.

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation has awarded two contracts to AECOM, a leading provider of professional technical management support services for government and commercial clients internationally. The contracts have a total value of 14.1million US dollars.

The first contract is for a project financed by the World Bank. Under this agreement AECOM will evaluate and revise tender documents, carry out a design appraisal of contractors' deliverables.  AECOM’s work will also include the upgrade of existing electrical substations in Addis Ababa, north, northwestern, north eastern, southern and eastern parts of the country.

Nyota Minerals, an East African focused gold miner, announced yesterday it has discovered three new gold reserves. These discoveries were made within the 3200 km2 of the Northern exploration area of the firm in Western Ethiopia.

Nyota regards these sites as ‘drill ready,’ and a multi-purpose drill rig has been allocated to them.

The Ethiopian statistics agency announced that the annual inflation rate fell to 40.1% in September. This is a decrease from the 40.6% inflation recorded last month according to the statement by the agency.

The year on year inflation rate fell due to the drop in the prices of fruits and vegetables. The price index of fruits and vegetables decreased by 3.4% explained the report.

The International Rose Producer Karuturi Global Ltd. is set to construct embankments around its farm in Western Ethiopia after incurring 15 million dollars worth of losses due to floods. The loss was primarily caused by the destruction of maize plants, with a potential yield of 60,000 tonnes according to Ramakrishna Karuturi, General Manager of the company.

Karuturi announced on Monday that the farmland was flooded in spite of dikes spanning 80km on the side that faces the riverbank. The 1.8 meter tall dikes proved to be inadequate to prevent the flooding Karturi explained.

The company reported plans to build taller dikes around the farm. The new design will aim to create a polder; land enclosed by dykes with no connection with outside water except through manually operated devices.

Leaders from Ethiopia and Djibouti inaugurated the substation linking Djibouti to the Ethiopian power grid on Wednesday. It was described as a milestone in linking the economies of the two countries by Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia.

More than 90% of the project was financed by loans and grants from the African Development Bank (AfDB). The project is thought to be very crucial to Djibouti which generated energy from diesel generators.

The memorandum of understanding for power purchase agreement was signed in April 2008 but it took two years to finalize the 25-year agreement.

The International Finance Corporation, private sector arm of the World Bank, urged Ethiopian businesses to ask for more funding. Very few Ethiopian projects are receiving help from IFC according to Jean Philippe Prosper, IFC director for Eastern and Southern Africa.  

The IFC is interested in investing in agro-industry, primarily coffee, as well as in the areas of banking, mining and leasing he said in a meeting with some of the larger Ethiopian businesses this week. The IFC plans to address concerns, in regards to the long term viability of funding from the IFC, raised by the business community during the discussions said Mr. Prosper.

National Oil Ethiopia Plc (NOC) is exploring the launch of operations in the East African Nations of Southern Sudan and Djibouti. NOC will install fuel stations and depots to provide complete oil retailing services in these countries, once a final decision has been made.

“We have only a plan and we are only exploring business opportunities in these countries. We are not sure whether we will be entering these markets or not” said Tadesse Tilahun, CEO and shareholder of NOC. The CEO explained that NOC is just investigating business opportunities in neighboring countries and has not made a final decision to enter the regional markets.