2merkato

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.

Zablon Trading Private Limited Company opened a processing plant for oilseed and pulses on 1 October 2011.  The plant is expected to clean and sort over 1,200 quintals of export standard oil seeds and pulses every year.

The company has exported oil seeds and pulses valued at approximately 5 million dollars, last year and is planning to raise its exports to 25 million this year said Biniam Bedewi Owner and Managing director of Zablon.  He said that they hope to achieve this through developing human resource and creating stronger links with local banks.

Boeing announced this week that Ethiopian Airlines placed an order for four of its 777 freight aircraft. The deal between the Seattle based aircraft manufacturer and the Ethiopian airway is estimated at 1.1 billion US dollars. A joint announcement on Wednesday made in Seattle explained that Ethiopian Airlines was the first African Airline to order the twin engine aircraft.

The Airline's freight capacity and range will be greatly enhanced by the new acquisitions according to Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines. The planes demonstrated operational and economical efficiency that is sure to strengthen the position of prominence enjoyed by the airline in Africa, said Tewolde.

Some of the machinery ordered by the Ethiopian government for the building of the Renaissance Dam started arriving in Port Djibouti. The machines that arrived at Port of Djibouti and are ready for transport were imported primarily from the United States and Italy.

A couple of US made Caterpillar family trucks, (990) at a cost of 1.5 million dollars each and Italian Astra machinery (including RD 40 and RD 50) at a cost of 250,00 euros each are currently at Port Djibouti awaiting transport to the project site. The imported machinery consists of bulldozers, dumpers, rollers, graders as well as other heavy duty machines to be utilized in the construction of the Dam said Mr. Pierre Kothari, Agent for Salini Contractors in Djibouti, on Wednesday.

The volume of commodities exchanged via the Ethiopian Commodities Exchange (ECX) exceeded 500,278 tonnes in 2003. It was announced yesterday that trading for this last Ethiopian fiscal year has shown an increase of 128% over the 223,000 tonnes traded last year, in a report given by Dr. Eleni Gebre Medhin, CEO of ECX at the Sheraton Addis.

The commodities exchange market saw a marked increase in trade and sound financial showing to match expanding operations in 2003 (Ethiopian Calendar) said Dr. Eleni.

Ethiopian federal offices are ready to establish special offices catering to investment and related requests from the Ethiopian Diaspora.

The new units will endeavour to reduce bureaucratic red tape as a precursor to complete Diaspora policy that will come into effect by December.

Baraton Trading P.L.C signed an agreement with Furukawa, a Japanese company, to import hydraulic breakers and rock drills.

The deal is expected to ease the problems faced by Ethiopian contractors to obtain the construction materials.

Representatives of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry are scheduled to visit Ethiopia in November.

The visit is due to a country focus presentation that members of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations had made late in June to 150 companies in Dubai on the investment opportunities and promotion available in Ethiopia.