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.

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.

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.

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.

Life has a way of throwing curve balls at you when you least expect it. Some attribute this to there being a series of accidents that lead you down paths that you never thought existed. Although I believe there is nothing in your own life that is out of your own hands, I suppose there may be a grain of truth in this argument.

Sometimes, life has a way of taking you down a path that you would never have gone on your own. It could be good or bad, depending on the situation, but one thing is for sure, it certainly is exciting.

That is the title of the monumental piece of poetry written 34 years ago by the late Poet Laureate and Playwright Tsegaye Gabremedhin, who passed away last week in New York at the age of 69. He had experienced a long illness.

The title of his poem, in my mind, is linked with the 110th anniversary of the Victory of the Battle of Adwa and the tribute we owe the revered man of literature. For more than a decade, this poem, which was recorded by the renowned radio journalist, Worku Tegegne, has been broadcast time and again over national radio, and as I write this piece, it rings a bell in my mind: “Wa Yachi Adwaaaaa!”
 

What you cannot avoid, welcome, the Chinese advise. This is precisely the advice our economic commentator gives to the administration of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who is struggling with mounting levels of subsidy for oil imports and the inevitable decision it should make to adjust prices at the fuel stations: now at 5.50 Br per litre on benzene and 3.87Br on diesel. Studies warn that failure to adjust prices now will cause a 200 million dollar additional burden on the budget by June 2006 and has far-reaching consequences for the economy. Prime Minister Meles seems to have little choice but to adjust the fuel price for the first time since December 2004.