A dispute over a relocation
issue evoked yesterday between businesses and the administration of the Adama
(Nazareth) town has led to two confirmed deaths and a series of over 20
injuries.
A town with 320,000
residents, 98Km south east of Addis Abeba, Adama is a commercial town that links
the capital to the most fertile areas of Arisi and the corridor to the Port of
Djibouti. Once groomed to have become the seat of the Oromia Regional State, its
residents are comprised of multiple ethnic backgrounds. Many of them are engaged
in business.
It was business owners
located on Adama’s most vibrant business district, a.k.a Gemb Gebeya,
that have entered into confrontation with the town’s administration, following a
request made by the latter a week ago to vacate the area. Installed 30 years
ago, the district has 100 stores built by the town’s administration and the
remaining thousands built by the businesses themselves. The Administration
wanted to lease the 26,000sqm area.
The Federal
Ethics and Anticorruption Commission arrested on Wednesday, May 24,
11 top officials of the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE),
including Tirfu Adehanom, who was appointed in March 2006 to vice
presidency for finance, under the reshuffled management.
All of them
were subsequently charged, together with Moges Chemere, former
president of the Bank, who was arrested last month, accused of abuse
of office and advancing loans in violation of DBE’s polices.
The Board of
Directors of the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) has
fired Tesfaye Birru, chief executive officer of the company, and two
of his three deputies, after having an unexpected meeting on
Saturday, May 27. Although persistent speculations have been
circulating in Addis on Tesfaye being in the ejector seat, the move
yesterday has taken many of the industry observers by surprise.
“He [Tesfaye] had no idea last week that he would be replaced,” said
an anonymous associate. “He was talking about a proposal he would
have submitted to the management board on Monday.”
Belated Restructuring, Reshuffling at Power Corporation
Ethiopia’s utility
monopoly, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), has gone
through major management reshuffling and organizational
restructuring that many in the government were convinced was a
belated move.
The company announced on May 19, the Board of EEPCo,
chaired by Fikru Dessalegn, state minister of Capacity Building, has
spared the chief of the company, Miheret Debebe, on the basis of
competence. He is believed to have the ability and managerial
capability to lead the country’s ambitious plan of wiring over 6,000
towns in the next five years, according to a senior government
official involved in the reshuffling process.
City Says No Investment without Environmental Impact
Assessment
The former
Addis Abeba City Administration Cabinet has ratified a draft bill,
prepared by the city’s Environmental Protection Authority, which
requires that all investments have an environmental impact
assessment done before they become operational.
The decision by
the previous Addis Abeba City Administration’s Lease Board to move
heavy vehicle garages out of the city centre to the Akaki-Kaliti
Industrial Zone has been expanded to include the Jimma gate area of
the ring road for the same purpose.
This makes,
according to the City Administration, the city free from traffic
congestion and pollution by way of stopping heavy trucks from
entering the city centre.
The Ethiopian
Sugar Industry Support Centre (ESISC) is preparing to terminate its
agreement with Tana Fuel Tankers Owners’ Association to transport
molasses from Methara Wonji Sugar Factory to the Port of Djibouti.
ESISC is not
satisfied with the way Tana has carried out the transport for the
last nine months.
U.S. Based Company Enters Assosa to
Develop Bamboo, Eucalyptus Farm
Land and Sea
Development Ethiopia (LSDE) Plc, headquartered in Washington State,
United States, and involved in the advanced agricultural sector, has
completed initial preparations to enter the agro-industry sector in
Ethiopia, receiving a plot of 400,000ht.
LSDE received
an investment license from the Federal Investment Agency in 2004,
with a registered capital of 560 million Br. The owners are Bruce
Fischer, Jay Nijjer and Mike Gebru, the latter resides in Ethiopia
and serves the company as president.
Ethio-Israeli
Flower Farm Focuses on Red and Yellow Roses
ADM AWRS Plc,
an Isreali-Ethiopian company, is establishing a new flower farm in
Bishoftu (Debre Zeit), 50Km south of Addis Abeba with an investment
capital of 32 million Br.
Three
Ethiopian-born Israelis along with four Israeli nationals are the
joint owners of the newest addition to the flower sector.
The Privatization
and Public Enterprises Supervisory Agency (PPESA) has sold Edget
Yarn and Sewing Thread Factory to Narin Orme Textiles Group, a
Turkish owned company.
The Narin Group
paid one million dollars for the factory, which has 540 employees
and rests on 68,307sqm. Hand in hand with its purchase also came the
close to 19.9 million Br in debts that the factory has incurred from
banks as well as other sources.
The
Privatisation and Public Enterprise Supervisory Agency (PPESA) has
short listed six international companies to do an environmental
impact audit on 16 enterprises under it.
The Agency,
which supervises 110 enterprises that are going to be fully or
partially privatised, needs the Environment Impact Audit (EIA) for
its enterprises engaged in the agriculture, leather and
pharmaceutical sectors.
Brasseries et
Glacieres Internationales (BGI) Ethiopia will begin production of
draught beer at its Kombolcha Factory.
The factory
used to produce only bottled beers branded St. George, Castel and
Bati. The Bati and Castel beers were introduced to the local market
by BGI in 1998.
The governments
of Egypt and Italy have decided to purchase food aid for Ethiopians
locally.
The Egyptian
Embassy donated 170tn of locally purchased maize to the Disaster
Prevention and Preparedness Agency (DPPA) on May 18, 2006.
On May 24, 2006
the Italian government followed in suit, making a one million Euro
grant available to the World Food Programme (WFP) in response to the
2006 Humanitarian Appeal for Ethiopia.
The Ministry of Health is under preparations to award the
demolishing of its headquarters, located on Sudan Street, to a
contractor.
The tender committee of the Ministry are in the process of
floating a tender for contractors to demolish the building. Three
bidders showed their interest, according to the Ministry, although
it declined to disclose who they were.
Elcom
Engineering and Daftech Computer Engineering have jointly launched
Computer Knowledge Tutorial Software in three local languages, Qubee,
Amharic and Tigrigna.
The
tri-language tutorial, which teaches the user how to use Microsoft
products, is designed for both beginner and advanced learners of
computer software applications and hardware maintenance.
After the bloody political turmoil back
in November, lieutenants of donor agencies in Addis met and resolved
business with Ethiopia would never be as usual. In protest to
repressive moves by the government, they managed to convince their
headquarters to punish Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government with
the suspension of direct budget support, which covered 15pc of the
budget. Six months down the line, the World Bank and the British
government are back to business with a 215 million dollars package,
albeit in a different form. The news is not new per se forit has been aired since January 2006. Tamrat G. Giorgis, Fortune
Staff Writer, recounts the chronology of events that led to the
intricate relationship the Bank and major donors have with the
Ethiopian government.
The
recent visit by Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, to Addis Abeba may
have a lot to do with the African Union (AU), in his country’s bid to solicit
support to Japan’s potential membership at the United Nations Security Council.
Constantinos Berhe Tesfu (PhD) took the opportunity to reflect on
Ethiopia’s historical relationship with Japan and how the latter could help the
...
It was clear why
the incumbent party sought a vote of confidence or a consensus
around its five-year economic programme. On the one hand, it wanted
to redirect or divert the national agenda from the political crisis
to development matters. On the other hand, it sought the opposition
parties to be part of the five-year plan in its bid to get the
consent of ....
British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill is largely credited for the decision that
has changed the value oil to the global economy. The world's
geopolitical affairs have been transformed since the end of the
First World War, when Churchill, then First Admiralty of the British
Navy, decided to use oil to power his navy rather than coal, to get
the upper ....
My tall Gojame friend called Thursday afternoon to kindly give me
some information that I needed. He enquired about what I was writing
about, and I ......
Famine is a
visible horror . . . Witness the agony, degradation, hopelessness
and silent anger on the dismal and skeletal faces . . . faith for
survival while in the agony of slow and ........
Some time ago, I
was having a conversation with someone and in the middle of a heated
debate; he stated emphatically that what Ethiopia really needed at
this point was a revolution.
The judiciary is
one of the three most respected branches of government. Thinking of
the judiciary we think of the judges seated on their long seats
dressed in their black gowns with grim faces reminiscent of the ETV
newscasts minus the melancholic and weeping voices of some of the
women newscasters we are subjected to during our evenings.
Habtesellassie
Tafesse, known most notably for being the godfather of Ethiopian
tourism, now finds himself in the limelight after having a low
profile for a considerable time.
He was the head
of the Ethiopian Tourism Board during the Imperial government.
......
