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The Samsung conglomerate announced plans, on Thursday, to collaborate with the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA) to halt the import of counterfeit products into the country. The South Korean Corporation is particularly interested in eliminating counterfeit products in the mobile phones sector.

Samsung plans to address the problem of counterfeit products gaining access to the African market according to Jong Oh Lee, Samsung East Africa Regional Market Director. The ‘gray’ or counterfeit products are particularly a problem in the mobile phone sector he said at a press conference at the opening of the Samsung Ethiopia Week.

Tigray Resources Inc has announced that it has completed nine diamond drill holes since mid-August in Ethiopia. The holes are approximately 1700 meters and have been completed on drill sections 80 meters apart at Terakimti and are part of ongoing exploratory drilling.

Drilling is targeting a zone approximately one kilometre in strike length identified through geological, structural and alteration mapping; gold anomalous gossan outcrops; soil geochemical anomalies; IP, resistivity, gravity and EM targeting; and results from 12 previously drilled holes.The lab is expected to deliver the results for the first eight diamond drill holes in four to six weeks.

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.