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A centre of excellence for freight logistics, Ethiolog, was established yesterday at the Addis Ababa University.

The centre will make the freight transport and logistics efficient and cost effective, Getachew Mengiste, Minister of State for Transport, said.

Ethiolog is expected to create a joint forum for higher learning institutions, government offices and the private sector to work together. And it will be entrusted with conducting research to address problems in the transport sector.

Allana Potash announced yesterday that it intersected high-grade potash mineralization in hole DK-11-27 on its 154,000-hectare property in the Nequen province of Ethiopia.

Assays from this hole returned 37.7 percent potassium chloride, or potash, over 3.45 metres at a depth of 159.9 metres. It also intersected 17.41 percent potash over 13.0 metres at a depth of 163.35 metres, and at a depth of 259.23 metres, the hole intersected 7.67 metres grading 23.05 percent potash.

Ethiopian Potash Corp. announced that it had completed nine holes, and was currently drilling the tenth hole of its ongoing exploration program.

The company said that all of the holes had intersected the regional Danakil potash formation, and all holes intersected potash mineralization.

The holes were drilled along the western edge of the Danakil and targeted the on-strike continuation of the Musley potash deposit about 10 km south of the company's SW discovery area.

Two Indian leather development institutions said they were determined to make Ethiopia one of the top 10 countries in the world in shoe and leather manufacturing in three to five years.

Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) and the Footwear Design and Development Institute (FDDI), Indian government institutions, are going to work with the Ethiopian Leather Industry Development Institute (ELIDI).

The Indian institutions said they would transfer technology and help accelerate the growth of earnings from Ethiopia's leather and leather products export.

Karel Electronics of Turkey signed an agreement on Monday with View Computer Engineering, an Ethiopia IT company, to work in partnership and to sell Karel’s IT products in Ethiopia.

It was pointed out during the signing of the agreement that in the long run the Turkish company might start assembling its products here and that the agreement could pave the way for such a venture.

The Ethiopian Shipping Lines Share Company announced that it had finalised preparations to buy nine new ships for 300 million dollars this fiscal year.

Out of the nine ships, seven will transport dry cargo while two will carry oil, Ambachew Abraha, managing director of Ethiopian Shipping Lines, said.

Ambachew said that loans from the China Exim bank will cover 80 percent of the price of the ships while the balance will come from the Commercial bank of Ethiopia.

The Documents Authentication and Registration Office said that it would introduce online attorney registration for clients through its official website as of this week. The scheme is scheduled to be launched tomorrow.

Until now clients had to visit the notary office for the authentication of legal documents. It is expected that the new registration management system will do away with the necessity of such visits except for notarisation.

The office is installing the online registration system in all of its branches.

The Ethiopian Public Procurement and Disposal Agency (PPDA) announced that it had bought 400,000 tonnes of ordinary Portland cement for 34.6 million dollars from D.G Khan Company Limited (DGKCC) of Pakistan and Global Africa of Israel.

According to the agency, the first shipment of 150,000 tonnes of cement is due to arrive in two weeks time.

The cement is to be used for the construction of housing projects in Addis Ababa, new sugar factories and roads, Yigezu Daba, director general of the Public Procurement & Property Disposal Service at the agency, said.

Istanbul Gas Cylinder Manufacturing Plc of Turkey is going to start distributing liquid petroleum gas (LPG) as of next week. The company is a joint venture with TIRET, the Amhara Endowment Fund.

Istanbul Gas has taken a one hectare plot of land out of 130 owned by TIRET in Sheno, Ahmara Regional State, for filling cylinders with LPG.

Istanbul Gas has already imported 22,000 tonnes of gas from Sudan and four depots through which 6,000 cylinders will be filled, Nuzet Erdogan, owner and general manager of the company, said.

Ethiopia’s revenue from textile exports over the last two months hit 18.5 million dollars, up from 11.6 million dollars in the same period the previous year.

Textile products that contributed to the increase of the revenue included yarn and thread, garments, clothes and weaving products which contributed 4.8 percent, 9.percent, 78 percent and 8.2 percent respectively.

Late in July, it was reported that Ethiopia had earned 62.2 million dollars from the export of textile in the fiscal year to 7 July 2011 achieving 73.1 percent of its projection. The amount is a 178 percent increase from the previous fiscal year’s earning which was 23.2 million dollars.