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The Ethiopian Airlines announced that it would restart flights to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, today after they were temporarily suspended as a result of ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Eritrea.

The ash cloud is expected to clear soon, allowing flights to destinations in eastern and northern Ethiopia to reopen, Ethiopian Airlines, sub-Saharan Africa's second-biggest carrier by passenger numbers, revealed in a statement.

The volcanic eruption which caused the temporary suspension of flights to destinations in northern Ethiopia occurred early Monday morning at Dubbi, 350 km north of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea.

Source: Bloomberg

Ethiopia to be part of the free trade zone

African trade officials met this week in Johannesburg to launch negotiations for a free trade area (FTA) which would embrace more than 26 countries, and about a trillion dollars of economic output.

The proposed deal would unite three existing trade blocs in central, eastern and southern Africa. It is believed that the free trade area will do away with most trade barriers between participating countries. African leaders said that the Free Trade Area (FTA) would be practical within three years.

Two of the blocs, the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC), have already been enjoying tariff- and quota-free trade.

In the mean time, the third bloc, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), only has levies on 15 percent of goods and should be removing those by January.

When the negotiations are concluded, the enlarged FTA would include Ethiopia, Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, DRC, Egypt, Eritrea, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Commerce within Africa is limited with not more than 10 percent of the continent's trade being conducted between African countries, while the balance goes overseas.
After its formation is complete, the free trade area will be hopefully open to regions throughout the whole continent, Diouf of the African Agency for Trade and Development said.

Source: Christian Science Monitor, Reuters

Hewlett Packard (HP) launched this week a Toner Cartridge Authentication (TCA) program to help customers confirm the purchase of original HP toner cartridges.

The new technology works on select HP LaserJet printers such as HP Colour LaserJet Pro CP5225 Series, HP LaserJet Pro M1530 MFP Series, HP LaserJet Pro P1100 Series, HP LaserJet Pro P1560 Series and HP LaserJet Pro P1600 Series.

The HP – TCA is free software that validates whether the installed cartridge is an original HP LaserJet toner cartridge or an alternative supply, such as a remanufactured, refilled, cloned or counterfeit cartridge.

When the cartridge is not a genuine HP cartridge, the TCA will present users with additional information to address potential counterfeiting.  If a user receives a notification when they believe they have purchased an Original HP cartridge, they will be directed to HP’s Anti-counterfeit website to report the potential counterfeit cartridge.

The new product is available to customers all over Africa who can download the HP TCA Software and apply it on any HP LaserJet printer that supports the digital authentication

Over the last four years, HP has assisted in the seizure of nearly nine million pieces of fake printing supplies products and components in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Source: HP press release

The government of Ethiopia has reached an agreement with the Export-Import Bank of India (Exim) for a 91 million dollar loan to fund exports and consultancy services for the development of the country's sugar industry.

The loan went in to effect as of 21 May 2011 and the agreement was executed as of February 18, a statement from the Reserve Bank revealed.

The agreement concluded on 18 February 2011 is for funding eligible goods and services, including consultancy services, machinery and equipment from India for the purpose of financing the development of the sugar industry in Ethiopia.

About 75 percent of the goods and services, including consultancy services, from the credit provided under the agreement, have to be sourced from India according to the press release.

Source: Economic Times

Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Ethiopian Airlines said that it started again flights to neighbouring Djibouti which had been temporarily suspended because of ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Eritrea. The ash cloud has cleared. 

Flights to some cities in northern Ethiopia like Mekele, Gonder, Axum and Bahir Dar, and Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, remain suspended, the airlines said today.
The volcanic eruption which caused the temporary suspension of flights to destinations in northern Ethiopia occurred early Monday morning at Dubbi, 350 km north of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea.

Ethiopian Airlines had to cancel flights as reported here due to the volcanic ash.

Source: Bloomberg

Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Culture and Tourism Bureau of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's State said it had collected over 71.6 million birr income from tourism.

Mikias Israel, deputy head of the bureau said yesterday that the 71.6 million birr was obtained from 403,470 local and 72, 537 foreign tourists who visited attraction sites in the region over the last nine months.

Mikias said the amount of the income obtained and the number of tourists who visited the region over the last nine months had increased by 56 percent and 45 percent respectively, in comparison with the same period the previous year.

Expansion of infrastructures such as road, telecommunications, electricity and tourists' facilities as well as extensive promotion made by the bureau contributed to the income and increase in number of tourists, he said.

The region is rich with sites of natural and historical attraction like crocodile ranches, hot springs, caves and waterfalls among others and Mikias said the Bureau was doing its best to exploit these.

Source: Walta Information Centre

Wednesday, 15 June 2011

The Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT) is preparing to establish a factory for the production of PVC raw materials at a cost of two billion birr. The factory will be set up near Mesobo, Tigray Regional State, an area endowed with large limestone deposits.

Currently, about 40,000 metric tons of raw materials are imported for manufacturing PVC products in the water development and the construction sectors. The company aims to reduce the flight of foreign currency by supplying the demand for the raw material.

Sources say that the factory will use Chinese technology, though it has made no official announcement regarding its decisions. The formation of the company, supervised by Ezana Mining Development (another EFFORT company), is not yet complete.

This factory will become the fourteenth EFFORT company next to Mesfin Industrial Engineering, Mesobo Cement Factory, Sur Construction, Baba Dimensional Stone, Trans Ethiopia, Express Transit, Guna Trading, Addis Pharmaceuticals, Sheba Tannery, Hiwot Agriculture, Almeda Textile, Experience Ethiopia and Ezana Mining Development.

Source: The Reporter

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Seacom Ltd., a company that operates a fibre-optic link in East Africa, said it was planning to extend the cable into Burundi, Southern Sudan and Somalia in cooperation with partners as demand for internet services continues to grow.

"We would like to expand our footprint," Julius Opio, the company's regional head, said. But he refused to give more details.

Opio said that the first country to be linked to the cable would be Brundi once it has installed 1,300 kilometres (810 miles) of fibre network next year. The cable would then be extended to Southern Sudan within a year of its independence, scheduled for July 9. Over the following two or three years, the cable will be extended to Somalia, he said.

The company currently has fibre-optic links in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya (where its east and north African office is based), Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, Opio said.

Source: Bloomberg

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Over 4.4 million dollars was obtained from the export of 14,000 kg of opal over the last 11 months, the Ministry of Mines announced today.

According to the Ministry, compared with the volume opal exported and the amount of money earned from the same mineral last year, the income earned over the reported period has registered a significant increase.

Ethiopia has been exporting opal to over 27 countries including the United States, India and China which are its leading customers.

Between 2008 and 2009 Ethiopia had made about 241,564 dollars and 1.2 million dollars exporting 656kg and 100,000kg of opal respectively, the Ministry said.  

Source: Walta Information Centre

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

The 97 megawatt Amerti-Neshi multipurpose hydroelectric power project is going to start generating electricity with one of its two 48.5 megawatt turbines becoming operational in a week's time. The other turbine is scheduled to start operation on 15 September 2011.

The dam was built on the Neshi River, five kilometres from where it joins the Amerti River, both of which feed into the Finchaa River which flows out of the Abay River. The dam's reservoir started collecting water on 22 July 2010 and can hold 448 million cubic metres.

Construction on the dam was started by China Gezhouba Group Co (CGGC) in September 2007, nine months after the signing of the project contract.

The construction was estimated to cost around 137 million dollars according to Ministry of Water and Energy. Out of the total cost of the project, 85 percent of the funding was acquired in a loan from the Chinese Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank, while the balance was supplied by the Ethiopian government.

The project includes the installation of a 241 km transmission line at a cost of 445 million birr.

Additional dams planned to be constructed over the coming five years include Gibe III which will generate 1,870MW of electricity, and Genale Dawa III and Genale Dawa VI which will generate 254 megawatt, and 246 megawatt, respectively, all in the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional State.

Geba I and Geba II, with the capacity to generate 215 megawatt and 157 megawatt, respectively are in the Oromia Regional State.

In addition, in Amhara Regional State there are the Chemoga Yeda I and Chemoga Yeda II projects which will generate about 162 megawatt and 118 megawatt of electricity respectively.

Source: Fortune