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The Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise (EPE) is going to import coal from South Africa to secure sustainable supply of coal as an alternative source of energy for cement factories.

The move follows the unsuccessful bid by the Ethiopian government to acquire pet coke for cement factories.

All 12 cement factories have the infrastructure for using coal while Mugher and East are expected to finish installing infrastructure to use coal power sources by 2013.

The Ethiopian Airlines said it was planning to increase its market share in Africa by ten folds in 2025 by raising the quality of its service and number of its aircraft.

Tewolde Gebre-Mariam, CEO of the airlines, said that Ethiopian would add 70 modern, fuel-saving aircraft to its fleet.

According to Tewolde, Ethiopian's annual income has now reached 1.6 billion dollars and the company was working to raise it to 10 billion dollars. The airline’s annual number of passengers is currently over three million, three times greater than the number of passengers over the last five years.

Chinese shoe factories told Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Friday that they were interested in investing in Ethiopia. Zan Guha Rang, president of Hu Han Zangur, a shoe factory producing 15 million pairs of shoes a year, said, that it was looking for markets in Africa, particularly in Ethiopia.

The Prime Minister, during his five-day visit to china, assured the Chinese investors that Ethiopia would support prospective Chinese investors. Representatives of various Chinese companies spoke with the Prime Minister about their intentions to invest in Ethiopia.

Delegates of General Electric, the American multinational corporation, are scheduled to arrive here next week for the purpose of holding talks with the Ethiopian Electric and Power Corporation (EEPCo) on renewable energy investment projects in Ethiopia, Mekuria Lemma, Corporate Planning Head of EEPCo, said.

According to Meheret Debebe, CEO of EEPCo, General Electric has already expressed interest in investing in Ethiopia in the renewable energy sector.

Colvir Software Solution, a U.K.-based company that provides postal software and core banking solutions, launched its products in Ethiopia last week.

Representatives of Colvir said that the company entered the Ethiopian market following the steady growth of banks and other financial institutions in the country.

VAT registered businesses throughout Ethiopia are going to start using cash register machines like those in Addis Ababa.

Officials in the Tigray Regional State started this week enforcing the use of cash registration machines the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA) said. The Amhara, Oromia and SNNP regional states are preparing to begin using the system.

The Central Statistical Agency said this week that Ethiopia’s inflation rate climbed to 39.2 percent in July from a year earlier.

Inflation accelerated from 38.1 percent in June, according to the agency. Food prices increased by 47.4 percent in July after rising 45.3 percent in the previous month, while the cost of non-food items fell from 27.9 percent to 27.8 percent, it said.

Stratex International, the AIM-listed gold miner, saw shares shoot up today following its announcement of "significant results" from drilling at its Megenta hot spring gold discovery in Ethiopia.

The company said that it had found new high grade samples at the nearby Akehil gold prospect.

Stratex International, along with its partner Thani Ashanti, said the latest drilling data confirmed bonanza grades were present in epithermal veins in the region and in response its shares jumped 12 percent higher.

Al Brooge Securities Company, which acquired 75 percent stake in a Djibouti Oil Refinery, is set to invest 150 million dollars to increase its daily output, Husam Alameri, CEO of the company, said.

Alameri said that the acquisition deal had been concluded with investors from the UAE and Saudi Arabia. He said that the new owners would spend 150 million dollars to increase by 150 percent the refinery's current capacity of 40,000 barrels per day of Arabian Light Crude and Arabian Heavy Crude to 100,000 barrels per day.

The chief executive officer said that the next expansion phase would start in the six months period.

Tigray to immediately launch an 11,000-metre first phase drill program at the Harvest project

Canaco Resources Inc. and Tigray Resources Inc announced last week that Tigray had received conditional listing approval from the TSX Venture Exchange, subject to usual listing requirements. When it is listed, Tigray will file the necessary election to become a public corporation as of the beginning of its first taxation year.

Andrew Lee Smith, president and CEO of both Canaco and Tigray Resources said that the companies were endeavouring to fulfil the listing requirements as quickly as possible in order to facilitate the trading of Tigray shares on the TSX-V.