Prime Minster
Meles Zenawi is scheduled to meet Peter Mandelson, European Trade
Commissioner, on Tuesday afternoon, October 3, to discuss Ethiopia’s
position on trade policies and its concerns over the ongoing
negotiations on the economic partnership agreement (EPA) the EU is
holding with Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, sources
disclosed.
A high level
European delegation, led by the European Commission’s (EC)
President, Jose Manuel Barroso, arrived in Addis on Saturday,
September 30, to meet its counterparts from the Africa Union (AU).
They will be meeting tomorrow with the AU delegation to be led by
chairperson Alpha Omar Konare, that includes Elisabeth Tankeu, AU’s
commissioner for Trade and Industry.
The Wegagen
Bank S.C. Board of Directors has officially dismissed, Kidane
Nikodemos, president of the Bank, after keeping him in suspense for
four months.
The letter
terminating his contract, which was written on September 15, 2006
and signed by the Chairman of the Board, Wendwossen Kebede, was
received by Kidane on September 26.
The letter
states, “I would like to indicate that your contract has been
terminated as of September 11, 2006, and that you should return all
properties of the Bank.” It does not specify reasons for the
dismissal.
Proving that
the cement shortage suffered in Ethiopia these days is of paramount
importance to the smooth stewardship of the country, Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi expressed hope that Derba-MIDROC's highly anticipated
import of 1.5 million tonnes of cement would soon be hitting the
market. He was speaking to local journalists and international
correspondents in a press conference marking the conclusion of the
recent EPRDF Party Congress.
DBE Closes Second Pharmaceutical Factory in Two Weeks
The Development
Bank of Ethiopia (DBE), which has a greater worth of non-performing
loans (NPL) than its operating capital, has started pursuing its
borrowers with fervour, beginning with the foreclosure of two
pharmaceutical companies in the past two weeks.
On September
19, 2006, DBE foreclosed the sole syringe producing company in the
country, ETAB Syringe Manufacturing Plc. now, on September 25, 2006,
it foreclosed Bethlehem Pharmaceutical Plc.
Meles Sees
MIDROC's Cement Arriving in 'Few Weeks'
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi revealed his hopes that the cement
Derba-MIDROC pledged to import from abroad will arrive here in the
coming "few weeks", but remained uncommitted to be more specific on
the timeline.
He
spoke to local journalists and international correspondents on
Saturday afternoon, September 30, 2006 in his office, following the
conclusion of the sixth party conference of the political coalition
he leads.
The negotiations
between the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) and the
National Electricity Corporation of Sudan (NEC) concluded without
resolution after four days of discussions last week.
The Ethiopia
Sudan Power System Interconnection Project negotiations, held at the
Addis Abeba Hilton Hotel from September 19 to September 22, 2006,
had three agendas that were to be addressed.
Nas Foods Plc.
has started a 50 million Br expansion project in its plan to produce
20,000 cartons of biscuits a day from its current production of
8,000 per day. Of these, five thousand will be a new product called
"Choco Wafer".
Nas Foods is in
the process of importing machinery from Italy and will begin
construction adjacent to the present factory located in Legetafo, in
the Oromia region, 19km northeast of Addis Abeba, which has an area
of 27,500sqm.
City Commerce Chamber Introduces Upcoming Trade Fair
The Addis Abeba
Chamber of Commerce & Sectorial Associations held a ceremony at the
Addis Abeba Hilton Hotel on September 28, 2006 to introduce its
Annual Trade Fair which will be held February 22-28, 2007.
The trade fair
will be organized under the title “Networking for Successful
Business” with Information Technology (IT) as the theme.
A building
constructed for the National Archive and Library Agency (NALA) is
still standing idle four months after its construction ended.
Sources disclosed
that the reason the Agency has not moved in and opened up for work
is because the construction company that built the new building,
Grace Construction, was not willing to hand over the keys to the
edifice.
The
Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervising Agency (PPSEA) has
appointed Hailemariam Dessalegn, Chief Advisor of Social Affairs
with a Minister Portfolio to the Prime Minister, as chairperson of
the Maritime and Transit Services Enterprise’s Board of Directors.
Hailemariam,
who was the former president of the Southern Regional State from
2003 to March 2006, was appointed chairperson on September 26, 2006.
Five IT companies have taken part in a re-tender issued by the
National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), to install a campus wide network
infrastructure at the inactive Ethiopian Academy of Financial
Studies (EAFS) compound located in the Akaki area, 20Km east of
Addis Abeba.
NBE cancelled a
first tender, because only two companies had handed in their tender
documents by the set deadline of August 13, 2006, forcing the Bank
to re-tender on August 27 with the submission deadline set for
September 25.
Tefera Beyene,
who was head advisor in the Waterworks Enterprise Department at the
Ministry of Water Resources, has taken over as the head of the
Ministry’s Trans-boundary Rivers Affairs Department, making him the
lead negotiator from the Ministry in the Nile Basin Initiative.
The position
was vacant after Musa Mohammed, a revered figure in Nile Basin
dealings, resigned on August 3, 2006 after eight years in the post
and left the country.
Aschalew Haile, who resigned from his position of president of the
Ethiopia Chamber of Commerce and Sectorial Associations a month ago,
is currently developing a 34-bedroom hotel in the Merkato area.
Aschalew told Fortune that the reason he decided to resign
after 13 years of service at the Chamber was because he wanted to
dedicate his full time to the new project.
The inter-clan conflict in Somalia has been a cause of concern
lately, with the emergence of a militant group that is now Supreme
Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) and put a military challenge to
the Transitional Federal government (TFG) that is now limited in
Badoa. Controlling the capital Mogadishu and much of the southern
parts of Somalia, the group counts much of its international support
from Eritrea, Egypt and Libya, if not Saudi Arabia's wealthy
supporters of the expansion of Wahabism, according to this writer
known as Antony Shaw, a pseudo-name but with an authoritative
analysis of events in Ethiopia and the surrounding countries.
Seyoum Bereded, 41, came to
the public scene shortly after Seyoum Mesfin, minister of Foreign Affairs,
appointed him to lead a secretariat in charge of the Ethiopian Millennium
celebration. It will comprise a series of events beginning on September 10,
2007.
Seyoum heads a secretariat
of four people: Abebe Balcha, Mulugeta Asrate Kassa and Yohannes G. Sellasie.
This group reports to an executive committee chaired by Minister Seyoum, who
last week invited about 120 people to constitute the National Millennium
Council, an entity whose creation was officially approved by the Council of
Ministers last year.
For a regular
customer of Behil Restaurant, one of the three such businesses
adjacent to Ras Hotel on Gambia Street, the recent change on the
menu is obvious not on the cover or design of the book sized
brown-leather menu, but in the food prices inside.
Out of the
three pages of food, one can observe that previous prices on six
food types have been cancelled out with a red marker with new prices
written over them. However, the price increase has not affected the
cost of Tibs Firfir and Sega Firfir. The increase is
mostly seen in the menu’s eggs category and Italian specialities.
The boom in
the construction sector, particularly seen in housing development,
has led to somewhat of a decline in the cost of rentals. Granted the
sector is facing some problems lately due to the shortage in cement,
it still holds true that more spaces have been made available for
both living and business and that the average tenant now has a lot
more options to choose from.
Prior to the
slowdown a few months ago, there were considerable incentives that
were being given out to real-estate developers, leading to the peak
in that sector and the growth of the capital today. Availability of
land and tax breaks were two of the enticements that were given to
private investors.
On Thursday
September 28, 2006, another Ethiopian film premiered at Alem Cinema
located on Africa Avenue.
Directed by
Yared GebreSilassie, Zema Hiwot, (“Musical Life”) is a two
hour romantic tragedy based on the story of a young Ethiopian woman
who faces challenge after challenge despite the kindness of her
heart.
The tale begins
in South Africa where the heroine, Helina, played by Messeret
Mebrate, lives in a life of drug trafficking with a man she loves.
She leaves her life of crime and comes to Addis Abeba to become an
accomplished singer. But Helina is still not satisfied with her life
and she ventures into a realm that she feels passionately for, but
that brings her conflict.
