Delayed by a year in part due
to difficulties in tough terrain on the gorge, the construction of a
hydroelectric dam at the Tekeze River Basin, in Tigray Regional State, is well
underway. Project supervisors on the site believe that the dam will begin
generating electricity – at least from one of the four turbines – at the end of
2008.
The Chinese and Ethiopian
joint venture company, CWGS, was formed by China National Water Resources and
Hydropower Engineering Company (CWHEC), 49pc; China Gezhouba Water and Power
(Group) Ltd, 30pc; and Sur Construction, 21pc. The project owner, the Ethiopian
Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), awarded the company this project at a cost
of close to two billion Birr.
AfDB
Reconsiders $40.8m Ethio-Djibouti Additional Power Loan
The African Development Bank’s (AfDB) rejection of
the 40.8 million dollar-additional loan request by
the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) and
Electricite de Djibouti (EdD), initiated finance
ministries of the two countries to re-request the
loan needed for the Ethio-Djibouti Power
Interconnection Project.
Tamrat Layne, former defence minister and prime
minister during the transitional period, may have
been locked up in jail for 10 years now, appearing
to have vanished in the debris of history, unlike
others who seem to have vocal constituencies here
and abroad. Nevertheless, members of the business
community in Sekota, a small rural town 719Km north
of Addis Abeba, still have him at heart. They would
like to see him granted amnesty by the federal
government before he finishes his 18-year term.
Dashen
Bank SC purchased a new card personalisation machine, which
the Bank uses for issuing Visa cards, for around 200,000
euros (2.5 million Br) from the German Muhlbaur, through its
local agent SSC Plc. The machine will replace the broken one
the Bank had been using for over a year.
The new
machine arrived one week ago with two professionals who have
finalised the installation and left Friday, August 24, 2007.
Another professional working on security also arrived on the
same day, according to SSC sources.
ALEX
VINES, head of the Africa and Asia programmes at Chatham
House; and GARETH PRICE, head of the Royal Institute of
International Affairs, in London, argue that the economic
presence in Africa of the world's largest democracy, India,
deserves scrutiny as China has captured most of the
attention. The two rising Asian powerhouses have remained
suspicious of each other in foreign policy over the years
but both are hungry for the vast resources the African
continent holds.
Keep Ethiopia Beautiful (KEB) Plc is a private company
which is working on cleaning the city by placing trash receptacles
throughout the city of Addis Abeba, hiring employees who clean the
trash cans. The workers empty the trash cans and clean a 20m radius
surrounding each site.
KEB assigns one person per three cans and pays its
employees from sponsorship incomes. The company charges a special
pre-Millennium price of sponsorship, 1,500 Br for three months,
according to Ermias Mekonen, general manager of KEB.
Planning to build toilets around the city and expand their
services to Mekele, Bahir Dar, Dire Dawa and Adama (Nazaret),
they will hire 200 employees.
KEB started operation on August 18, 2007, and thus far
installed 14 trashe cans on the streets of Bole and Kirkos
districts. The can you see to the right is seen on Africa Avenue
(Bole Road), Olympia.
Hardly anyone
displayed the extent of loss and the degree of grief more
profoundly than Assia Abdela, 18, when a flash flood struck
Dire Dawa, Read More
VERBATIM
"Trying to protect the home market is not going to make an airline
successful. It will prepare it more for death than success."
Eying the
growth of China and India, Girma Wake, CEO of Ethiopian
Airlines, told Reuters about the National Carrier's desire to
tap the surging growth in the two Southeast Asian countries by
opening new flights targeted at making Addis Abeba their gateway
to Africa.
KASSA BAYOU (PhD)a civil servant in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD)
for 32 years and now a leather veterinarian in the USAID
Agribusiness and Trade Expansion Programme in Addis Abeba,
paints a rosy picture of the leather sector.
