2merkato

Ethiopia is preparing to successfully host the 2013 African Growth and Opportunity Act Forum announced the Ministry of Trade.

Committees, charged with the task of coordinating the preparation for the forum at various levels, have already been created and are expected to commence with laying the ground work for the meetings according to  Amakele Yimam, Director of the Corporate Communication Directorate with the Ministry of Trade.

The ministry has also opened lines of communications with two of the other six African countries who have already had the chance to host the AGOA Forum said Amakele. The ministry expects to learn from the experiences of the two countries, Zambia and Kenya to support Ethiopia’s opportunity to host this event he noted.

Ethiopia plans to attract more tourists from Chine in light of the growing number of Chinese tourists that travel overseas, Ethiopia's Minister of Culture and Tourism announced.

Ethiopia is planning to submit its offer on services to the World Trade Organization in September 2013 as part of its accession bid. Ethiopia is currently working on offers for 160 service industries, some of which are controlled by the state.

Last year, Ethiopia has submitted suggested tariffs on goods to member countries for negotiation, Geremew Ayalew, head of the trade relation and negotiation directorate at the Trade Ministry, said in an interview with Bloomberg in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia has launched a test run as part of efforts to export electricity to Sudan according to sources at the Ethiopian Electric and Power Corporation.

The test run for power supply was launched this week after the finalization of the Ethiopia-Sudan Transmission Line set up at a total cost of 41 million US dollars confirmed authorities at the EEPCo.

Ethiopia expects to provide 100 Mega Watts of electricity during the test run according to the source.

Ethiopia has secured victories in two major international arbitration cases, successfully defending claims exceeding USD 850 million and strengthening its position in international dispute resolution.