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The price of oil and other raw materials also fell sharply

The stock market plunged by more than 4 percent yesterday in its worst day in more than two years and investors flooded safe-haven investment alternatives, fearing that global economy may stumble into a new recession.

European markets have continued the steep share sell-off, with investors worried about both the eurozone debt crisis and the weak US economy.

Techno Brain, software solutions provider in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda proudly announced yesterday that it had been awarded the 2011 Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Award for Malawi region and Independent Software Vendor (ISV), Enterprise Software Advisor and Government Partner Awards for West East Central Africa region. 

Plans to set up manufacturing plant here in the long run

Nokia, one of the largest phone makers, is planning to invest in Ethiopia within the coming six to twelve months, Brad Brockhaug, head of sales for Nokia in Africa, said.

Brockhaug declined to reveal how much money Nokia might invest in Ethiopia.He said that the company was considering opening a manufacturing plant in Ethiopia in the long run.

World Remit, provider of online money transfer services, launched this week an online money transfer service which makes it possible for Ethiopians living abroad to send money back home using a variety of payment options like debit cards, credit cards and Interac Online (Canada).

The new partnership with WorldRemit would further extend the range of money transfer services available to Ethiopian diaspora members who regularly send money back home, Haimanot Amare, Director-Foreign Transfer and NR/NT Accounts, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, said.

Ethiopia earned 841.6 million dollars from the export of about 200,000 tonnes of coffee in 2010/2011 fiscal year. The country is planning to raise its coffee production to 700,000 tonnes from 300,000 tonnes over the coming four years.

Experts said that the increase in the quantity of coffee exported from Ethiopia was due to the introduction in 2008 of a commodity exchange market, which promoted transparent trading, and rising global commodity prices.

In Ethiopia the market has been growing from February onwards 

Nigeria has enjoyed the largest growth in mobile advertising in Africa with market hitting 122 percent to nearly 1 billion impressions a month, the latest Mobile Insights Report released yesterday by InMobi, the world’s largest independent mobile ad network, said.

According to the report, trends in mobile advertising in Africa are on the rise. 

Ethiopia has earned over 104 million dollars from the export of shoes, leather and leather products during the fiscal year to 7 July 2011, the Leather Industry Development Institute said.

The income exceeds that of the previous fiscal year by 50 million dollars. The items were exported to the United States Europe Asia and African countries, Birhanu Sirjabo, communication director of the institute, said.

Energoinvest, the largest Bosnian engineering group said today that it had won a contract to build a 230 kV power transmission line in Ethiopia at a cost of 45 million dollars.

According to Energoinvest, the contract was awarded by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPC). The contract will be officially signed between EEPC and Energoinvest in two wekks time. The company said that the project was scheduled to be completed within two years.

The African Union said today that it was considering taxes on air tickets, imports and insurance premiums to raise funds for the 53-member bloc.

The Addis Ababa based organisation said in a statement that contributions from partners and member states were no longer adequate, sustainable and reliable to meet the Union's growing financing needs. It said that such taxes would not only have a significant revenue impact for the AU, but would also be equitable and efficient.

Ethiopia has entered in to agreements with eight international companies which are going to explore for deposits of oil and gas in the country.

Ethiopia had signed 11 agreements for sharing profit from petroleum and one joint survey agreement with the eight companies, Ministry of Mines said yesterday.