Officials from the Ethiopian Road Authority called this big crack
across the Addis-Awassa road a landslide, but geologists are not so
sure. They are afraid that the severe road damage is caused by the
geological movement that may one day, in a million year or so,
divide much of Ethiopia from mainland Africa.
Authorities at
the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) are writing a new directive that
they hope will police the operations of banks that are involved in
the remittance business, the transfer of funds from overseas through
intermediary companies.
Although there
are four international companies entered into a deal with almost all
the private and state owned banks in Ethiopia, there is no directive
issued by the regulatory agency that governs their conduct. They are
believed to transfer an annual 220 million dollars into the country,
mainly from the United States but also from countries in the Middle
East.
The board of
directors of Wegagen Bank are in a headhunt search to find a
replacement for Kidane Nikodimos, the bank’s second president since
its establishment in 1997.
According to
reliable sources, directors of the board, chaired by Wondwossen
Kebede, met on July 22 at the Bank’s head office in the Dembel City
Centre on Africa Avenue, and discussed performance problems during
Kidane’s presidency, inviting three management members, including
the acting head, Araya G. Egziabher. They were also discussing the
possibilities of finding the right candidate, in their bid to
replace Kidane, whose trouble began when he was arrested by police
last April.
Noah Samara,
the Ethiopian born CEO of Worldspace Corporation, a Nasdaq listed
company based in the United States, was in Addis Abeba last week,
seen with his Sudanese business partner, Salah Idris. They met at
the Sheraton on Wednesday, July 26, with Moeletsi Mbeki, the South
African media mogul who owns Endemol South Africa (Pty) Ltd.
According to
reliable sources, Samara has offered Mbeki to join him as a
strategic partner to his African operations of what is to be a
satellite radio service for automobiles.
An important
component of Smara’s plan is a technology being developed in the US
that will help avoid the loss of satellite signal that has proved to
be a nuisance to satellite radios early customers. According to
Samara, terrestrial repeaters could relay signals whenever failure
occurs in satellite reception.
Officials at
the Ministry of Revenue threatened last week to launch random
searches on the streets of the capital in a bid to seize what they
claim are vehicles transferred to third parties without duty paid to
the government.
The Ministry
suspected that close to 144 vehicles imported without paying duties,
but with forged documents, have been sold to third parties in
violation of the government’s goodwill directive issued in 2001.
On the day when
the Adami Tulu woreda court in Eastern Shoa Zone sentenced Dawit
Kebede, Jemal Urdo and Asheto Agu to short prison terms for stealing
cables and plastic sheets, Edmond Juma, the Kenyan head of
construction at Ethiopia’s largest flower farm, lost four kilometres
of cables to theft. Imported from Israel, each meter costs a minimum
of six dollars.
The Anbessa
City Bus Enterprise cancelled a contested tender for the supply of
fuel and lubricant oils, after oil suppliers complained of a new
clause in the tender document they alleged unfairly privileged a
specific company.
The tender was
opened on May 3, 2006, for the supply of the bus company’s annual
consumption of 12.5 million litres of diesel fuel, 19,400lt of
benzene and 180,000lt of different types of lubricants.
Shebele,
one of the two vessels being built by the Chinese Kouan Shipbuilding
Industry Co for the Ethiopian Shipping Lines (ESL) was launched
successfully yesterday.
Shebele
left
the shipping yard and touched the Pacific Ocean at 3:00pm Chinese
local time. The other vessel, Gibe, will follow within five
months.
The total cost
for the construction of the two vessels is 383.5 million Br. ESL
signed the contract for their construction on March 31, 2004.
The just
completed fiscal year’s last tender for the purchase of the mineral
tantalum floated by the Ethiopian Mineral Development SC (EMD) has
been awarded to the Chinese company, Ningxia Non Ferros Metal Import
and Export Corporation, on June 17, 2006.
Ningxia was the
highest bidder paying 865,456 dollars for 20.332tn of tantalum.
Central Africa Mining and Exploration and Oriental Metallurgy
Limited were the other two participants. The lowest bidder was
Oriental offering 27.50 dollars per pound while Ningxia’s offer was
32.11 dollars per pound (1lb = 0.454kg).
A private
developer of newly completed luxurious villas built on Djibouti
Street in the Old Airport area, is hoping members of the diplomatic
community and other international expatriates rent out six of the
two-storey houses completed so far.
They are among
the most sophisticated and luxurious villas seen in Addis Abeba,
aimed at lifting up the standard of life style in the capital,
according to Begziabher Alebel, a private architect who developed
the design for Getachew Weldu Real Estate.
The Investment
Commission of the Oromia Regional State has stopped offering plots
to real estate projects within 10Km radius of Addis Abeba,
Fortune has learned. This suspension includes towns such as
Dukem, Sebeta, Burayu and Sululta.
There are only
three real estate companies licensed by the region within these
areas: Country Club Developers, Ropac International and Mamite Real
Estate. They are all found in the Legetafo area, 19Km north-east of
Addis. These are part of the 15 real estate companies operating in
the Oromia Regional State.
Etihad, a
national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has launched a new
cargo flight to and from Addis Abeba.
On Friday July
28, Etihad's inaugural cargo freighter landed at the Addis Abeba
International airport at 4:40pm and departed with seven tonnes of
exports less than an hour later.
The flight will
operate every Friday, departing from Addis Abeba, stopping over in
Abu Dhabi for about an hour, and continuing on to Frankfurt. This
service is operated with one of Etihad's Crystal Cargo A300-600F
freighters, which offers 44tn of cargo capacity per flight.
Using one
million euros given by the European Union (EU), the Ethio-Djibouti
Railway Company (EDRC) purchased spare parts for the malfunctioning
locomotives that stopped the company from achieving its economic
targets.
EDRC's plan for
the last nine months was to transport 180,000tn of freight and
118,000 passengers. But with only five locomotives in operation it
managed to transport only 57,000tn and 79,000 passengers. Four other
locomotives were idle because of a shortage in spare parts.
The ruling party
has been presenting itself to the public in a way completely unfamiliar to
government observers and the public. Inter-party dialogue, contract signings,
press conferences, movie premieres and improvised award ceremonies are just a
few examples of the latest ventures carried out by EPRDF leaders who say they
are determined to start “engagement politics”. What could be the motive and how
much is the otherwise sceptical public impressed? Derese Nigatu and Tagu Zergaw, Fortune
staff writers, tried to find out.
Experts in the
information technology field believe two major components determine the success
of technology-supported learning and training. One is the underlying computing
and network infrastructure and the other is the appropriate content to be
delivered to the underlying infrastructure. In a paper presented in Addis Abeba
to the first international conference on “ICT for Development Education and
Training” on May 24 and 26, 2006, Woldeloul Kassa and Samson Teffera argued that
e-learning offers very little in the absence of affordable bandwidth delivery.
The three
essential capabilities for human development are for people to
lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable and to have access
to the resources needed for a decent standard of living.
But the realm
of human development goes further: essential areas of choice, highly
valued by people, range from political, economic and social
opportunities for being creative and productive, to enjoying
self-respect, empowerment and a sense of belonging to a community.
How is to be achieved?
What has come out undisputable and clear in contemporary
Ethiopia is how important May 2005 was. It has already become a
milestone event. It was an epic moment that has changed almost
everything to everyone involved in today’s political discourse of
any type. Nothing is the same. Interestingly, all those playing the
game saw how powerful public voice has come to be, although their
interpretations and perspectives are as varied as their ideological
positions.
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 ......
various - often
conflicting - mindsets, ideologies and worldviews, as well as
assumptions on what works and what does not, guide our particular
context when it comes to agricultural and rural development
policies.
The uncle that I mentioned in this column two weeks ago
left on the same day as my birthday. It was a bit of an odd feeling
because that day is usually all about me. As he was leaving, that
day was all about him, too.
The title
sounds a bit simple. Let me try to reveal its nature.
The other day I
was walking by the Addis Ketema telecommunications zonal office
right in the heart of Mercato when I saw the massive poster carrying
the slogan "Linking Ethiopia to the Future."
I found it
bizarre. Perhaps the message aims at promoting the
telecommunications technology as the pioneering instrument for all
kinds of advancement. You cannot ponder about such things in Mercato
where there are an awful lot of things to draw your attention.
Everything seems to be in a rush in Mercato as best described in one
of the poems of the late Poet-Laureate, Tsegaye Gabre Medhin, and
entitled "Ay Mercato!"
“I Was There
When…”If everyone who says they saw former US President Clinton
playing saxophone at the Sheraton Addis were actually there when it
happened, some say that not even Addis Abeba Stadium would have been
large enough to host the event.
Because in case you were to hear people in town claiming to have had
the privilege of having been there when former U.S. President Bill
Clinton played saxophone at Sunset Bar, an exclusive club in the
Sheraton with over 4,000 Br annual membership fee, gossip wants to
set the record straight.
