Although it came out belatedly, the quarterly journal of the
National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) finally declared its Ethiopian
Academy of Financial Studies (EAFS) open for business. Nevertheless,
the Prime Minister’s office shocked the central bank community last
week with a decision that gave the 120 million Br facilitiy in Akaki/Kaliti
District to the Addis Abeba University (AAU).
Director of the
Academy, Dr. Eyob Tesfaye, was summoned on Tuesday, October 31, to
the Prime Minister’s Office, where the decision was communicated to
him by Brehanu Adelo, head of Cabinet Secretary under the rank of
Minister.
A day earlier,
according to reliable sources, President of the University, Andreas
Eshete (PhD), met Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, and made his case
that he needed the facility - that was kept idle for two years - to
graduate close to 800 PhD students in the coming three years.
Enormous Turnout
for EEPCo’s Multi-Million Birr Bid
The Ethiopian
Electric Power Corporation’s (EEPCo) auction to contract the
construction of an electric power distribution line has attracted
bids from 48 local companies.
The project is
part of EPPCo’s plan to provide 180 towns with electric power in the
current 2006/07 budget year. The company divided the 33 kv
distribution line work into 17 lots.
The bids that
provide the technical evaluation document were opened last Monday,
October 30, 2006, at the Corporation’s Sports Club Hall located near
the Mexico Square. The bid document opening ceremony started at 2pm
and was not over until it was 9pm.
Renowned singer Tewodros
Kassahun, aka Tedi Afro, was released on bail Saturday afternoon after being
held in detention by Police since Friday morning for allegedly leaving the scene
of an accident.
The detention followed the
death of 18-year-old Degu Yibelte on the night of November 2, 2006, on Taitu
Street that leads from the Grand Palace to the Sheraton Addis.
Police sources told
Fortune that a man claiming to be taxi driver called the police and gave the
plate number of a BMW that had allegedly caused the accident. A car with the
same number later collided with a concrete barricade in the CMC area near Lucy
Academy. The sources said that the car was registered under Tedi Afro’s name.
Tedi appeared at the
municipality court near Mexico Square on Friday, during which police requested
extra time for investigation, which was granted. After passing one day in
custody with the Addis Abeba Police Commission, Tedi Afro was released on bail
for 50,000 Br.
Gov't
Secures Funding from India for Sugar Projects
The government has secured
a 600 million dollar loan from the Indian EXIM bank for the construction of the
new Tendaho Sugar Development Project and expansion of the existing Finchaa and
Wonji Shoa sugar factories.
The loan was negotiated
between the Indian Embassy in Ethiopia and the Ministry of Finance and Economic
Development (MoFED), following which, Girma Birru, Minster of Trade and Industry
and Belay Dechasa, director of the Sugar Development Agency, travelled to India
two weeks ago to conclude negotiations and sign the agreement with EXIM.
TOTAL Ethiopia
SC and the TOTAL Ethiopia Fuel Transport Truck Owners Association
signed a transport service contract on October 24, 2006, which is
hoped to a the four year old row; this is the first group agreement
TOTAL has signed with transporters after several years of being
contracted only to individual owners.
The fight was
over route assignments and service fee tariffs, leading the
Association to successfully sue the company at the Trade Practices
Commission and the Federal High Court.
Residents in
two of the eight zones of Ayat Village, established by the Ayat Real
Estate Development Plc, are complaining of severe water shortage
that has continued for several months without any solution from the
company.
Ayat,
established in 1996 as one of Ethiopia’s first planned real estate
developers, has constructed over 1,700 residential homes beyond the
CMC area east of Addis Abeba, according to a company brochure.
The Awash International Bank conducted an Export Day on
October 24, 2006, at the Hilton Hotel to acknowledge exporters
working with the Bank and to draw other exporters to work with them
in the next fiscal year.
Ethiopian
launched its new Sabre Sonic passenger service management
information system at midnight on November 3, 2006, switching from
the French SITA system which it had used since 1981; the system was
made available to passengers at 8am the next day.
A four-day
discussion on the draft strategic plan for the next five years of
the Addis Ababa University (AAU) will begin on Tuesday, November 7,
2006. Reliable sources told Fortune that Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi will open the discussion on Tuesday morning with a speech on
his government’s programmes in relation to higher education
institutions.
Wegagen Shortlists Card Service Technology Providers
After
preliminary evaluations of their technical offer, Wegagen Bank S.C.
has short listed three joint ventures to the second round in the
tender for the supply and installation of pay card service
equipment.
The process is
part of a second tender after the first one was cancelled in May
2005 by the Bank's Board of Directors for lack of participants. And
unlike the first effort, said Bank executives, this latest tender is
unfolding with a new code of conduct.
As part of the
government’s Tax Administration Reform Programme, the Ministry of
Revenue has begun the implementation of the SIGTAS (the Integrated
Tax System of Ethiopia) software in both the Large Taxpayers Office
(LTO) and the Addis Ababa branch office since last month.
The programme
has also planned to extend the usage of the software in Bahir Dar,
Mekele, Nazareth, Awassa, Jimma and Dire Dawa regional offices
within the next two months.
First Fertilizer Tender to Open under New Directive
A tender issued
by the Agricultural Inputs Marketing Department of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) to procure 75,000tn of DAP
fertiliser will open November 8, 2006, according to the Directive
issued by the Council of Ministers at the beginning of 2005.
For the past month, and for the first time ever in Ethiopia, the
Ethiopian Tire and Rubber Economy Plant S.C (ETREP) has begun to
manufacture Elastrometric Bridge Bearing (EBB), a stabilizing
mechanism for bridges, instead of importing the product from Spain.
Commerce at the
Bole International Airport terminal is about to get a major
expansion. Private company al-Faraj is about to open its second
shop, while Country Trading is finishing construction of its
Millennium Duty Free Shop. The monopoly days of the Ethiopian Trade
and Tourism Enterprise seem to be over.
Ethiopian
Airlines, which chose to retain its passengers at the cost of profit
decline, pointed to a number of other reasons as well for the 57pc
loss from the previous year’s profit.
Along with the
rise in fuel prices, Ethiopian encountered a significant
surge in the number of passengers, from 1.55 million in 2004/2005 to
1.76 million in 2005/2006.
Four years ago,
the Ethio-American Trade and Investment Council invited an Ethiopian
delegation led by then Minister of Trade and Industry, Kasahun Ayele,
currently Ambassador to Berlin, to visit four different American
states and explore Ethiopian cultural exhibition possibilities. On
the Houston leg of the visit, the team sat down in a Mexican
restaurant and began seriously envisioning a wide-ranging exhibit
that could attract millions of people, one that would include a
six-year loan of Lucy, Ethiopia’s beloved fossil. According to Dirk
Van Tuerenhout, PhD Curator of Anthropology at the Houston Museum of
Natural Science, Lucy will be the real star for his museum’s
visitors when the show opens just under a year from now. But are the
benefits worth the risks?
Tamrat G. Giorgis, FORTUNE STAFF WRITER, sat down with Dr.
Tuerenhout to find out.
ANALYSIS-A New Found Coziness
Between Chamber and Government
Tadelech Dalecha,
state minister for Culture and Tourism, was not happy to see the
Addis Abeba Chamber of Commerce & Sectorial Association “think
small” on its new 200 million Br international trade center,
possibly to be built on a vast tract of plot located opposite the
CMC residential complex.
She wanted to see
the centre include a facility where diverse cultures of Ethiopia and
“even Africa” are promoted. She made the suggestion at a luncheon
the Chamber hosted for government officials on October 12, 2006, at
the Hilton.
