2merkato

Prince Aklile Berhan Mekonnen has expressed a renewed interest in acquiring Ghion Hotel in the aftermath of the latest unsuccessful tender.

It is to be remembered that Aklile Berhan had signed a 512 million US Dollar joint venture agreement with the Ethiopian Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervising Agency made in 2010

The Ethiopian born prince however defaulted on the deadline for the 210 million US dollar initial payment established by the agreement. PPESA went ahead and put the hotel up for bid several times changing its terms to offer full privatization when it found no interest for a joint venture.

Premium Print plc is to build a factory with the potential to produce 40,000 toner cartridges annually in Ethiopia.

The company, in partnership with EC Solutions, A British company, plans to substitute the import of toner cartridges into the country as well as to export to the regional market.

Premium Print launched the assembly of toner cartridges three months ago with a monthly production rate of 200 cartridges at a workshop it is renting until it acquires land to build its factory.

Melba Printing, Publishing and Packaging plant, a printing and packaging factory built at a cost of over $32 million (1.4 billion birr), has been inaugurated. The plant has a capacity of producing over 138,000 books a day, 50 million a year. The plant is located in the town of Gelan, in Ethiopia's Oromia region.

National Airways, a private airline established last year, announced that it was preparing to float shares to the public.

Established with a 10 million birr capital in July 2010, National Airways was licensed by the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA) and the Ethiopian Investment Agency. 

Private airlines in Ethiopia established an association which they dubbed “Ethiopian Private Airlines Association”.