Siye Abreha, formerly one of the top TPLF people and defense minister, and for sometime an opposition voice who had resisted the temptation to formally join any party; along with Negasso Gidada, once president of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, and then an independent MP with an opposition inclination, have both decided to end their individuality by joining the Unity for Democracy and Justice, the party whose official chairman is the imprisoned Birtukan Mideksa. Siye said he made the UDJ his choice because he wanted a party without any ethnic partisanship, while Negasso said that the UDJ was his choice because his struggles as member of opposition Oromo groups and even as member of the OPDO, one of the founders of the ruling EPRDF, had not brought about any results either for the Oromo people or for other ethnic groups.  In his speech announcing his decision, he said of his new leader, Birtukan Mideksa, “The fact that she has remained steadfast in favour of truth and love and that she is ready to pay the sacrifice for the purpose she believes in truly makes her a disciple of Jesus Christ.” Shown here from left to right are Siye Abreha, Gizachew Shiferaw (Eng.), deputy leader of the UDJ; Negasso and Asrat Tassie, UDJ secretary.

Government Communication Affairs Office (GCAO) is sponsoring a new film, "The New Face of Ethiopia." The film includes all the positive achievements in the areas of road construction, agriculture, energy and a number of other infrastructure developments in Ethiopia that had already been filmed by a film-producing crew from Canada.

The film-producing crew includes the owner of the Ethiopiafirst.com website Beniyam Kebede and Desalegn Eyob, a former editor of the Addis Abeba-based magazine on environment and development, Ethiopia Akirma.

With the shootings the crew has already made in various parts of Ethiopia, it has left for Canada where the film is going to be produced. 

The film is expected to be finalized and delivered to the office within a few months. It is also expected that the office will use the material to widely promote "The New Face of Ethiopia" through various media outlets, according to sources.

Commercial farms owned by private investors in Ethiopia are now covering nearly 390,000ht of land.

These farms are in Omorate, Arjo-Dedesa, East Wollega Zone of the Oromia Regional State; Alwero of the Gambella Regional State, Upper Beles of the Amhara Regional State; Baro of the Gambella Regional State and include the land in the Afar Regional State, according to Asfaw Dingamo, minister of Water Resources.

Al Amoudi's new company, Saudi Star received 10,000ht in Alwero, Gambella Regional State, to grow food for Saudi Arabia. This farm will use the Alwero dam, which was constructed by the military regime to grow cotton in the area.

The stated amount of farmlands also includes the 35,000ht of farmland in the upper Beles area of the Amhara Regional State to which a Brazilian company, BDFC-Ethiopia, got 17,400ht of land in the Tana-Beles basin, in Jawi Wereda of Awi Zone.

One of the local companies engaged in commercial farms for the purpose of producing sugar, Eshet Sugar Factory has a promise for 23,500ht of land.

It also includes a farmland owned and developed by Indian firm, Karaturi Global, which has agricultural interests in the Gambella Regional State.

A Pakistani Sugar Company, Al Habesh Overseas Engineering and Trading was also granted 70,000ht of land in Arjo (Dedesa) in East Wollega Zone of the Oromia Regional State.

Ethiopian Shipping Lines S.C (ESL) and Chinese companies made a deal which allows the former to acquire nine vessels, seven multipurpose cargo and two oil vessels at a cost of 290 million dollars. Ethiopian Shipping Lines S.C is working to secure the finance from the Chinese EXIM Bank.

The new resource would enable Ethiopia to transport its fuel consumption with its own vessels. If the deal was to be concluded and should the company manage to get a hold of the vessels, then the ships would enable the company to raise its transit capacity from the current 150,000tn to 400,000tn. Each of the multipurpose vessels, have a capacity to transport 28,000tn while each oil tanker has the ability to carry about 41,500tn of fuel.

The company has plans to get the vessels after two years' time. Over the past three months, the company has transported over 730,000tn of goods, securing 109 million Br.

The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange Authority (ECEA) is to organise a three-day Training of Trainees (TOT) in Awassa city of the South Ethiopia Peoples Regional State in a bid to strengthen modern commodity trading across Ethiopia.

The authority also sponsors the TOT to effectively carry out its responsibility. The authority has been working among the various stakeholders including crop producers with the interest of encouraging them to join the expanding commodity market.

The instruction of the trainees will commence in the presence of senior regional and federal officials such as Sheferaw Shigutie, president of the South Ethiopia Peoples Regional State and Ambassador Addisalem Balema (PhD), director of the Ethiopian commodity Exchange Authority. The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange Authority (ECEA) is a regulatory body of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) plans to announce a bid for the construction of 10 new public universities across the country, in January 2010, according to a senior official.

Currently, the Ministry is looking into three alternatives on how to conduct the bid for the construction. It has the options of taking the responsibility to announce a nation-wide bid, giving the mandate to regional education bureaus to conduct the competition or delegating the Ministry of Works and Urban Development to carry out the bidding.

MoE has already awarded the designing and supervision work of the universities to local consultancy firms in July this year. The campuses planned to be constructed are in Adigrat, Addis Abeba, Ambo, Assosa, Bule Hora, Debre Tabor, Hosaánna, Mettu, Weldiya and Welkite.

The Ministry, through competitive bidding, had made its final decision in which it awarded the 43.3 million Br worth of design and consultancy contracts to six local architectural firms.

Sanford International School is to inaugurate a one storey building on December 12, 2009. It has built and furnished the structure at a cost of 12 million Br for the purpose of providing additional facilities for the school community.

The expense for the construction of the new building was acquired from parents' development fund according to Tesfaye Kassa, senior manager of the school.

He further added that the new building provides state-of-the-art facilities like drama, music, arts and information resources centre to the students and staff. The building that took two years to finish is stretched on a 500sqm plot of land within the school compound.

Sanford International School, known until the recent change of name as the Sanford English (Community) School, has a student population of about 700 and is drawn from approximately 50 nationalities of whom a significant percentage of the students are Ethiopian.