In the absence of both the Minister of Trade and Industry Girma Birru, who opened the 10th international trade fair by the Addis Abeba Chamber of Commerce and Sectorial Associations, and Provisional Mayor Arkebe Oqubay, the Chamber honoured them for the support they provided during the difficult times of transition during its over 50-year history. General Manager of the city, Zemedkun Girma, received one of these awards on behalf of his outgoing boss, from Chamber’s President, Eyessuswork Zafu.
 

For some in the business circle, it was a long overdue decision. For Moges Chemere, president of the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE), it was a complete surprise when a letter signed by the new chairman of the board, Melaku Fenta, also minister of Revenues, was tendered to his office on Tuesday morning, February 28, stating that he had been removed from his position.
 

European based companies demonstrated a strong showing last week when the state owned Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) opened its international procurement bid to buy two million SIM cards.

The successful company will have a sales contract worth over 100 million Br, according to a conservative estimate. This will represent the largest ever procurement by ETC whose plan includes increasing the number of existing mobile subscribers from 600,000 to 2.6 million in two years.

Close to 190 containers loaded with transformers and cables owned by the state owned Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) are stuck at the Port of Berbera, and have been left idle for over a month, sources disclosed.
 

Ethiopian Shipping Lines (ESL) will award the construction of its 10 million Br budget marine training institute on Lake Babogaya at Bishoftu (Debre Zeit), 45Km south east of Addis Ababa, to Tilahun Gurumu Building Contractor.

The contractor was selected from among 12 Grade V and above contractors that competed in the tender to construct the facility. The selection of the contractor followed a January 3, 2006, tender that was opened at the headquarters of ESL in the presence of 14 companies. Two of the bidders were disqualified for failing to present a two per cent bid bond and a bank guarantee.

The elected members of the Addis Abeba Regional Council of the CUD will establish a facilitation committee to take over the City Administration in a meeting that will be held at the conference room of the Addis Abeba City Municipality today, March 5, 2006.

Artistic Printing Enterprise is planning to print classified documents during the next Ethiopian year after spending 10 million Br renovating a warehouse in the Lideta District.

The Enterprise will do the printing in a 30-year-old building that it owns near to Abinet Hotel. Addis Abeba Foam and Plastic Factory currently rents the space for 5,000 Br a month on a yearly lease with the Enterprise which will terminate on July 7, 2006. The Enterprise will then take over the warehouse to begin its classified printing services.
 

The First Instant Court passed a verdict on Biniam Assefa, co-founder of Ropak International PLC, to be removed from his position as general manager of the company and compensate his damage to other shareholders on February 28, 2006.

Ropak International PLC was established by three individuals with 50 million Br capital in 1999.

With one of the highest rates of road traffic accidents in the world, Ethiopia’s National Road Safety Office has prepared a bill to allow it to exist as a separate government entity and strengthen its role in road safety issues.

The bill has been submitted to the Ministry of Transport and Communications and is expected to be passed on to the Council of Ministers by the Ministry in three months time. The bill will allow the Road Safety Office, which was established under the Transport Authority in 2003, to function on a countrywide level and control the bodies that work in the transport sector to ensure better national road safety.

Mengistu Yismaw, 21, a student and elected member of the CUD in the Oromia Regional Council, had no doubt that he would get an entrance badge to follow the latest trial of the CUD leaders, journalists and civil society members when he went to the Federal Supreme Court at Sidist Kilo on Tuesday, February 28, 2006.

His confidence lay in having been present at five consecutive hearings. He not only attended and watched how the defendants handled the charges – from treason to genocide - but also shouldered the responsibility of reporting what he observed to CUD members and supporters when he returned to his residence and constituency in Adama (Nazareth) and Arsi Negele, in West Showa Zone of the Oromia Regional State, respectively.

Pioneering a new method of advertising in Ethiopia, a local company is preparing to launch audio-visual systems into mini-bus taxis which have the potential to reach over 18 million customers a year.

New Line Advertisement and Promotion Plc is planning to launch a taxi audio-video advert system. The system will be started in some 200 mini bus taxis active in major areas of Addis Ababa. Advertising will be available for 14 hours a day, from 6:00am to 8:00pm, said Dawit Shewangizaw, owner and general manager of New Line, which has been registered with a capital of 350,000 Br at the Addis Ababa Trade and Industry Bureau’s registration office. He said he has received permission to provide the audio-video advertising inside a moving vehicle.

FAFA Food S.C., known for its line of children’s foods is to add three types of snack foods to its range of products by the end of this year.

The company, one of the oldest state owned food processing factories in Ethiopia, was established in 1962 as an Ethio-Swedish joint venture to provide low cost, high protein food, with the objective of reducing child malnutrition in Ethiopia. It used to operate in the compound of the former Princess Tsehay Hospital, now the Armed Forces Hospital. The factory, which has a production capacity of 400tn per year, moved to its existing premises in Saris on Debre Zeit Road in 1974.

Adama Development Plc, parent company of the Adama Spinning Plant, the first privately owned producer of carded cotton yarn, has signed a contract with the Swiss company RIETER to supply and install machines, and to commission and transfer technology.

The Adama Spinning Plant, located in Adama, Oromia Regional State, is projected to cost 100 million Br and will begin production in a year’s time. The plant will stand on 25,000sqm awarded to the company by the Oromia Regional State’s Investment Bureau. When it is fully operational it will produce carded cotton yarn for both the export and local markets. The plant will provide jobs for 300 people and will have a production capacity of 10,000kg of carded cotton yarn a day - three million kilogrammes a year. 

Anew port in development at Doraleh, 13Km west of the Port of Djibouti, saw last Sunday,February 26, the inauguration of its first phase: an oil terminal built at a cost of 100 million  dollars. It has a  capacity of 240,000 cubic metres of liquid oil and mainly petroleum products, chemicals, gas and edible oil are also included. The total cost of the entire development, including a brand new container terminal, is projected to cost 300 million dollars, making Doraleh the single largest investment in Djibouti’s history.

As it stands now, the Port of Djibouti is the largest and the most sophisticated in the region and it has managed to maintain its berths, terminals and machines because 90pc of the income goes directly back into further developing the Port, according to Aboubaker Omar Hadi, commercial director. He looks forward to when the Port of Djibouti becomes the sole transhipment hub at the Red Sea, competing against the Port of Aden in Yemen. Lulit Amdemariam, Fortune’s staff writer, spoke with him last week, while he was on a working visit in Addis for three days.

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