There could
hardly be anything more telling about Ethiopian leaders’ confidence
in winning the war against Islamic extremists in Somalia than their
full day appearance on the state television last Sunday, December
24. The state media had to interrupt live transmission from Bahir
Dar, the seat of the Amhara Regional State, where Prime Minister
Meles and his deputies were handing out medals to farmers, in order
to announce that Ethiopian defence forces were entering Somalia,
after it had, “run out of patience.”
Commanded by four Generals, Ethiopia’s swift victory in Somalia was
a surprise even for those who did have some doubt in Ethiopia’s
military capability. Ethiopian troops, along side soldiers from the
Transitional Federal Government (TFG), already controlled the strong
hold of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) by Wednesday evening,
December 27. The militias of UIC were “simply melted away” as its
leadership had left to the “seacoast” as Meles broke the news to the
local media and international correspondents on Thursday afternoon.
“Where ever they are, we’ll pursue the Jihadists, the remnants of
Eritrean forces and the Mujahidin,” Meles told the press conference,
which unusual for him to hold it twice in three days. (Click here
to read THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRESS
CONFERENCE).
SalaM Health Care Ends Contract
with Standby Nurses
SalaM Health Care Plc has decided to terminate its
contracts with over 150 nurses it trained over the past five years,
as part of an ambitious plan to have a unique referral hospital in
service of the East African countries.
A letter written to the students by Deputy General Manager
of the company, Melaku Yosef - dated on November 23, 2006, but
distributed last week – advise that contracts would be terminated as
of February 1, 2007; the constriction of the hospital could not be
completed and the company had faced problems which were beyond its
capacity.
Read More
Turkish Textile Relocates with
Hopes to Compete Int’l
One of
the largest Turkish textile factories, AYKA Textile Industry
and Trade Incorporated, founded in 1988 in Istanbul, has
started relocating its garment factory to Ethiopia,
beginning last month. It is hoping that cheap labor force as
well as nominal taxes and investment incentives the federal
government has provided to the textile sector would make it
remain internationally competitive.
The
Turkish company has established, in June 2006, a local
subsidiary company, AYKA Addis Plc, with a capital of 100
million Br and registered under three shareholders: AYKA
Textile, Yusuf Aydaniz and Gurkay Kavalikli.Read
More
Dashen Bank Strikes
on Own Management
(Left) was
replaced as Human Resource and Logistics manager by Meseret Taye (Right)
Dashen Bank has removed a
member of the executive management and suspended a branch manager this past week
for undisclosed reasons.
Human Resource and Logistics
manager Alemneh Endalew's eight year stay with the bank ended on December 22,
2006. Sources told Fortune that Alemneh, who had a longstanding disagreement
with Leulseged Teferi, the Bank's president, was pressured to tender his
resignation. Confirmation was unavailable both from the Bank and Alemneh. He
used to be one of Dashen's 10 executive managers below the two vice-presidents.
Alemneh, who holds a Masters degree in Management from the UK, handed over the
mobile phone and vehicle, which the Bank had provided him with, on December 28.Read
More
The Ethiopian
Millennium Festival National Council Secretariat has selected 10
ideas in celebrating the Ethiopian Millennium during its first
conference, held on December 13, 2006.
These 10 ideas
were selected from the numerous ones that were raised during the one
day meeting. One of the ideas approved by the Council is that the
Secretariat should request the length of 12 months, from September
2007 to September 2008, be named “The Ethiopian Year” not just by
Ethiopians, but by countries that friendly trade with Ethiopia.
The Federal
High Court overturned last week an earlier ruling to liquidate Get-Yan
Plc, the match manufacturer established by Ethiopian and Chinese
partners.
Documents
available at the Public Notary Office show that the company was
established in June 2000 by Get-As International, with 5,200 shares,
Zhang De Quan and his wife Chun Chen Yan, each with 7,000 and 2,800
shares, as well as Adugna Bekele and Asrat Gelete, who had 3,000 and
2,000 shares. Each share was worth 1,000 Br. Located in Akaki Kaliti
District on 5,500sqm plot, the factory has a capacity to produce
450,000 boxes of match.
The Memorandum
of the Foreign Trade Regime, which took three years and 11 months to
draw out and get approved by the Ethiopian government, was finally
sent to the World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters in Geneva,
Switzerland, two weeks ago.
Decision to
Dismantle Unprofitable Tendaho Agricultural for Sugar Merger
The Ministry of
Trade and Industry (MoTI), in November 2006, decided Tendaho
Agricultural Development S.C, located in the Afar Regional State,
600Km from Addis Abeba be dismantled and merged under the Tendaho
Sugar Factory.
The Ethiopian
Bar Association has replaced nine of its 13 top executive members
who have served it over the past 10 years.
During the
General Assembly, which was held at Semien Hotel on Belay Zeleke
Road, on December 23, 2006, the President of the Association,
Getachew Kitaw, was replaced by Tamiru WendimAgegnehu, but his
Deputy, WoldeSelassie Birtu was re-elected to serve further in his
seat.
China Imports to
Require Certification, Tariff-Free Exports to Increase
The Ministry of
Trade and Industry (MoTI) announced that it is to start requiring
pre-shipment inspection certificates for products imported into the
country from China, as of January 1, 2006. Moreover, the number of
items with special preferential tariff exported to China will
increase.
Energy Ministry
Removes Coal Plan, Cautions Overlapping Projects
The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MoME) two weeks ago held
discussions with officials from Mines and Energy Offices of each
region to confirm that its former coal energy project, has been
officially removed from the Ministry’s five-year strategic plan and
to caution overlapping from occurring between the Universal
Electricity Access Programme led by EEPCo and projects being funded
by the Rural Electrification Fund (REF).
The Authority
for Research and Conservation for Cultural Heritage (ARCCH) is
planning to make four out of the eight Ethiopian national landmarks
identified by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO), self-sufficient.
City
Transport Funded to Revamp Idle Bus Terminals
“The offices at
the terminals, especially at the Lam Beret terminal, during the police
forces’ stay in them, were very much damaged,” said the official. “We
had visited the sights and realized that the place needed to be repaired
before being put to use, so we approved a two million fund.”
“The offices at
the terminals, especially at the Lam Beret terminal, during the police
forces’ stay in them, were very much damaged,” said the official. “We
had visited the sights and realized that the place needed to be repaired
before being put to use, so we approved a two million fund.”
