Hassen Abdella (right), minister of Labour and Social Affairs, was one of the ministers that attended the knowledge forum titled “The Making of a Market: Global Learning from Commodity Exchange Experiences” organized by the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). On the forum held at the United Nations Conference Centre on Wednesday February 24, 2010, Mekonnen Manyazewal, chairperson of ECX’s Board and state minister of Finance and Economic Development and Yakob Yala, state minister of Agriculture and Rural Development also attended the event. Pictured here is Hailu Gebrehiwot, managing director of Haicof Limited Plc (member of ECX) explaining how prices of commodities can be read from ECX’s price tickers which was brought for display the forum.

Addisu Legesse (left), deputy prime minister, was not satisfied with the six-month performance report from regional governments which received financial support from the Federal Government, including Gambella, Benishangul-Gumuz, Somali and Afar. He also criticised Federal Government agencies, such as the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation and Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation, for not undertaking enough work in these regional states. Addisu, with Shiferaw Teklemariam (PhD), minister of Federal Affairs, gathered presidents of the regional governments at the Prime Minister’s Office for a two-daylong discussion which started on Monday, February 22, 2010.

Employees of ETDE, Bouygues Construction’s electrical contracting and maintenance subsidiary, were finalising the installation of a power substation at Ghion Hotel near Meskel Square on Friday, February 26, 2010. Bouygues Construction won a contract worth 50 million euros (67.8 million dollars) to upgrade the electricity network in Addis Abeba. It is to put up 68 power substations around the city. ETDE was contracted by Bouygues, in September 2008, to upgrade the underground and overhead power network which involves installing new power lines, substations and fibre optic cables. It is expected finalise the project in July 2010.

Fikre Teklemariam (right), general manager of Fikre Hospital Equipment and Kindergarten Materials Manufacturing, was one of the Ethiopian businesspeople who came to attend a discussion with the trade and investment mission that came from Europe. At the discussion organised by the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association last Thursday, February 25, 2010, at the Intercontinental Hotel, he met with Hans Hansilk, a representative of Siemens AG. He believes that these kinds of events can help build up communication between parties and finally lead to good business deals.

The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) was mandated to host the African Commodity Exchanges Association for the next two years. Addis Abeba will be the seat of the association’s secretariat.

This decision came about following a consultative meeting of representatives of commodity exchanges from Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania, Sudan and Zimbabwe on Thursday, February 25, 2010, here in Addis Abeba.

The proposal of forming the association came up back in September 2009 at a forum held in Lusaka, Zambia. Eleni Gabre-Madhin (PhD), chief executive officer of the ECX, will be the chairperson of the association.

“The chairmanship and the seat for the secretariat will rotate to members every two years,” Eleni told Fortune.

The number of member exchanges, work plan and budget of the association will be something that the mandated ECX will be working on for the next month, according to Eleni.

The ECX hosted groups from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Ghana and the Philippines which came to look at Ethiopia’s commodity exchange and how it had helped the market.

The Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry is to sign an agreement with the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Monday, March 1, 2010, to make Ethiopia its host country.

The general assembly of the continental organisation, formerly known as the Union of the African Chambers of Commerce and Sectoral Associations, met in Addis Abeba in July 2009 and decided to relocate its headquarters from Cairo to another host city. 

The Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association lobbied to make Addis Abeba the host city for the association. It managed to get the votes from 27 countries, three countries voted for Libya and four abstained.

The newly restructured continental organisation has an executive committee of ten members from the five different regions of the continent. South Africa is represented by Sitho Mseleku with the position of president of the organisation. Ghana, Ethiopia, Algeria and Congo Brazzaville have their representatives appointed as the four vice presidents of the union. The presidency will rotate among the five regions every two years. The 10 member countries of the executive committee are expected to finance the expenses of the chamber through contributions.

ELFORA Agro Industry, one of the companies in the MIDROC Technology Group, invited executives of the group and government officials for the promotion of its grape production on Monday, March 1, 2010.

The ceremony will be held at its sales centre around CMC. This is the first such event for ELFORA, which is growing grapes from its 15ht farm in Meki, 134km southeast of Addis Abeba, in the Oromia Regional State. ELFORA also grows white haricot beans, maize, tomatoes and peppers.

The UK Department for International Development (DFID) announced on February 26, 2010, an additional 30.4 million dollars in aid to help Ethiopia tackle the current food crisis, bringing the total British aid to Ethiopia since September 2009 to 384.3 million dollars.

In September, DFID gave 50 million dollars in emergency funding in response to the Government of Ethiopia’s latest humanitarian assessment, which estimated that 5.2 million people needed food aid.

“The UK is providing a lifeline to millions of Ethiopians who simply do not have enough food to eat,” Gareth Thomas, UK minister of International Development, said.

There was an expected 716 million dollars funding shortfall for the period between October and December 2009, to help the number of people in need of emergency assistance. 

The British Prime Minister and development secretary continued urging other nations and donors to respond to the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa and Ethiopia, according to a press release the British Embassy issued in Addis Abeba.

The last of the bodies of the Ethiopians that perished on the ET409 flight that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Beirut en route to Addis Abeba on January 25, 2010 arrived yesterday, February 27, 2010.

The 27 bodies arrived at Bole International Airport in the early morning hours.

Girma Wake, chief executive officer (CEO) of Ethiopian, board members and other senior management staff of the airlines received the bodies of the victims.

Families, relatives and friends of the victims were present at the airport.

“The funeral services of the victims will be held according to their faiths at various religious institutions,” Wogayehu Terefe, manager of Public Relations and Publications at the airline, told Fortune.

The first round of bodies came two weeks ago. A memorial was held for them at the cargo terminal of the airline and their bodies were laid to rest at the Holy Trinity Church.     

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) signed a two million dollar grant agreement with the Addis Abeba City Government Education Bureau for the construction of a model primary school in Akaki-Kality District.

The agreement was signed at the headquarters of the Addis Abeba Education Bureau on February 25, 2010, between David InYeup Song (PhD), chief representative of KOICA, and Dilamo Otore, head of the Addis Abeba Education Bureau.

The agreement includes provision of modern classroom furniture and school equipment.

The school will be constructed on a 3000sqm plot of land and is expected to be finished within the coming two years.

KOICA will invite 12 Ethiopian educational professionals to the Republic of Korea for two weeks to share Korean development experience in the field of education and school management, which is part of the project.

KOICA is currently constructing four primary school projects in the Arsi Zone of the Oromia Regional State at a cost of over two million dollars.

The new package of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), concessional facilities, to support low-income countries, became effective as of January 7, 2010.

This far-reaching reform more than doubles lending resources, provides exceptional interest relief, and offers new lending instruments that are more flexible and responsive to individual country needs, according to an IMF press release.

Key elements of the reform include three new lending instruments, interest relief, and permanently higher concessionality.

The Extended Credit Facility will provide flexible medium-term support; the Standby Credit Facility will address short-term and precautionary needs; and the Rapid Credit facility will offer emergency support with limited conditionality.

The Fund has also relieved developing countries from paying interest on outstanding IMF concessional loans until the end of 2011 to help low-income countries cope with the global crisis. Permanently higher concessionality of Fund financial support refers to regularly reviewed annual interest rates so as to preserve a higher level of concessionality.

People rushed to Miki's Fashion attracted by a big sale that involved 15 to 70pc discounts starting from Wednesday, December 23, 2009. Women enjoyed "broad selections at bargain prices" while some male shoppers were heard complaining of "lack of size options, selection varieties and next to zero discounts." The sale is expected to last for a month unless Miki's runs out of stock by then. It is in all its branches in Addis Abeba. Miki's shop at Getu Commercial Center was overwhelmed by large numbers of eager shoppers.

Meaza Ashenafi (left), founder and former executive director of the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, is now the chairperson of the committee which initiated the idea of starting a women's bank, currently under formation. Last Friday evening, November 13, 2009, the initiators invited prominent businesswomen to a consultation meeting held at the Belgium Embassy. Rahel Zewde, wife of Gunther Sleeuwangen, Belgian Ambassador to Ethiopia, is one of the ten women initiators who are involved in different business sectors. The initiators, who submitted their application to the National Bank of Ethiopia more than a week ago, are waiting for its approval to open a blocked account and start selling shares to the public. They expect the approval to come within a week or two.

The Ethio Poultry Expo was held at the Addis Abeba Exhibition Centre from November 4 to 6, 2009. The expo was organized by a Sudanese company, Expo Team Services Co. with an Ethiopian partner Prana Promotion. The organizers expressed their hope that the expo would be a springboard to attract international companies to enter the poultry markets in Ethiopia and other African countries. Culture and Tourism State Minister, Mahmoud Ahmed Gass, visited the expo where various poultry technologies were displayed.

The construction of the condominium houses of the Gergi site were completed six months ago. Since then, residents have started moving in. Nonetheless, the houses have no electricity and the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) was only able to provide power to some of the residents. Consequently, residents with no access to power are sharing with those who have power by using cables which they have extended themselves. Some of the cables extend for 400 metres, Abebe Daneo, a resident, told Fortune. The cables cost about one Birr per metre and the selling residents could charge the buyers up to 50 Br for a month's share of electricity.