A workshop organised by the Ethiopian Freight Forwarders and Shipping Agents Association (EFFSAA) and Fédération Internationale des Associations de Transitaires et Assimilés (FIATA) that started on February 22, 2010 ended on March 5, 2010, at the Harmony Hotel. Thomas Sim (left), chairman of Advisory Vocational Training (ABVT) FIATA, is seen discussing with Daniel Zemichael, president of EFFSAA, and Mekonnen Abera (right), director general manager of Maritime Affairs Authority at the closing ceremony of the workshop.

Hassen Abdella (right), minister of Labour and Social Affairs, was one of the ministers that attended the knowledge forum titled “The Making of a Market: Global Learning from Commodity Exchange Experiences” organized by the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). On the forum held at the United Nations Conference Centre on Wednesday February 24, 2010, Mekonnen Manyazewal, chairperson of ECX’s Board and state minister of Finance and Economic Development and Yakob Yala, state minister of Agriculture and Rural Development also attended the event. Pictured here is Hailu Gebrehiwot, managing director of Haicof Limited Plc (member of ECX) explaining how prices of commodities can be read from ECX’s price tickers which was brought for display the forum.

Addisu Legesse (left), deputy prime minister, was not satisfied with the six-month performance report from regional governments which received financial support from the Federal Government, including Gambella, Benishangul-Gumuz, Somali and Afar. He also criticised Federal Government agencies, such as the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation and Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation, for not undertaking enough work in these regional states. Addisu, with Shiferaw Teklemariam (PhD), minister of Federal Affairs, gathered presidents of the regional governments at the Prime Minister’s Office for a two-daylong discussion which started on Monday, February 22, 2010.

The 114th commemoration of the Victory of Adwa took place at Menelik Square, near St Giorgis Church in Piazza. Patriots adorned the commemoration with traditional war cries. Pictured above is Mengistu Abebe, member of Ethiopian Patriots Association, taking the hand of Teshome Toga, speaker of Parliament, in a firm handshake. Atsede Assefa (PhD), speaker of the Addis Abeba City Council, was among the dignitaries.

On the road from Akaki Bridge to Kaliti, in the Kebele 09 area, a new road sign has been planted on the two-way path divided by a centreline in response to the numerous car crashes at that particular juncture. The arrow directing oncoming cars to take the road on their right is expected to reduce the confusion that drivers face at this particular spot.

The Ethiopian Women’s Association is getting ready to celebrate the 35th celebration of Women’s Day on March 8, 2010, in Ethiopia. The association is gathering up steam in advance as the ladies carry out this year’s project which was to clean up Atekilt Terra the city’s largest open air produce market. The Addis Abeba Women’s Association while celebrating its 12th anniversary has gathered women from every district to pull together into clusters in order to clean up this area of Piazza, which exudes a foul smell due to the rotting vegetables lying around. Pictured above are Genet Teshome (front left) who is from Nefas Silk Lafto District and Tsehay Yammi (front right), from Akaki Kaliti District.

The Ethiopian Government and Saudi Fund for Development signed a 10 million dollar soft loan agreement last Tuesday, March 2, 2010, according to the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Addis Abeba.

The loan was provided to finance the Rural Electrification Project in Jijjiga and Degehabur of the Somali Regional State. The project is being carried out across the country.

“This is to enable the government to achieve its target of improving the socioeconomic development of the rural population,” according to the statement from the Royal Embassy.

Sufian Ahmed, minister of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) and Yousef I. Al-Bassam, vice chairman and managing director of the Saudi Fund for Development signed the agreement representing both parties.

Saudi Arabia also granted Ethiopia a loan amounting to 6.5 million dollars to be used to partially finance the execution of 100km of the Assosa-Kurmuk road project in western Ethiopia four years ago.

The Revenue and Customs Authority under the Addis Abeba City Administration’s Economic and Finance Bureau managed to collect exactly half of the 5.4 billion Br it targeted for the whole 2009/10, fiscal year during the last seven months.

The 2.7 billion Br revenue collected from tax and non-tax income, including land lease fees, has shown a 49pc increase from what the authority achieved during the same time last year, according to Belay Tafesse, director general of the authority.

Its business process reengineering (BPR), efficient information gathering (collecting finger prints and cash register machines), and law enforcement contributed to achieving the amount gathered.

“But this is not that much satisfactory, considering the potential,” Belay said, also indicating that the rising number of illegal trades in the city has contributed negatively to the number.

The Addis Abeba Water and Sewerage Authority (AAWSA) made a feasibility study of the master plan for waste disposal in the city.

The plan to dispose of waste through pipelines has been presented to stakeholders prior to the commencement of construction.

AAWSA currently deploys trucks and pipelines for sewerage disposal. However, the authority plans to upgrade the city’s disposal by an additional 800 pipelines.

The design for the eastern sewerage system’s master plan, which has been finalised will benefit residents around Kotebe, Yeka, Bole and CMC areas and will upgrade capacity by over 40pc, according to a press release by the Addis Abeba City Government Communications Affairs.

The master plan for the eastern sewerage system has been finalised and construction will begin in the next fiscal year as soon as the budget has been secured, according to Getnet Gessese, communication affair work process leader at the authority. 

The implementation is expected to benefit some 840,000 residents.

The Addis Abeba Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association held an award ceremony at the Hilton Hotel on March 3, 2010, occasioning the closing of the 14th Addis Chamber International Trade Fair.

The first award for Best Stand was given to Al-Sam Plc, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, Lucky Exports, Italian Trade Commission, MIDROC Technology Group, SNS Household and Office Furniture, Techtra Engineering, Petram Plc, MCO of the Federal Republic of Germany, Holland Car Plc and Q Diagnostics Plc. The second award for Special Partnership was given to GTZ-AMES-E.

The last award for sponsorship was given to Al-Sam Plc, the Development Bank of Ethiopia, Equatorial Business Group, Ethiopian Airlines, Omicron Engineering Plc, Sonic Screen Advertising, I-Print Advertising, Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation and United Insurance SC.

The trade fair that took place at the Addis Abeba Exhibition Centre from February 25 to March 3, 2010 brought together more than 118 local business companies and 108 foreign companies from 23 countries 

The inauguration of the new Ethiopian Institute for Agriculture, Building Construction and City Development (EIABC) was held yesterday, March 6, 2010, at Addis Abeba University (AAU) South Campus.

Demeke Mekonnen minister of Education, Junedin Sado minister of Science and Technology, Andreas Esheté (Prof) president of AAU and Dirk Hebel, Scientific Director of EIABC attended the inaugural ceremony and presented speeches on the significance of the institute.

The EIABC is one of the eight new semiautonomous institutes of technology being introduced in the country at various universities and is part of the overall university reform being conducted by the Engineering Capacity Building Programme (ECBP) and the Ministry of Education.

The university reform component is focused on the restructuring of governance and study programmes as well as technology transfers, standards, and benchmarks.

The ECA hosted the Civil Society Assembly for Assessing Development Challenges in African Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on March 4 and 5, 2010.

The assembly reviewed the Brussels Programme of Action (BPoA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The Brussels Programme reviewed the last 10 year plan since coming to a close and proposed action plans for the coming 10 years.

There are 33 LDCs from Africa including Ethiopia. Cape Verde recently got off of the list of LDCs.

The action plan is to enable the LDCs to reach at least seven per cent of commodity driven growth. The LDCs economic growth is dropping because they are only engaged in exporting primary commodities.

Their exports face structural difficulties since there is no diversified exports, according to Adrian Gauci, economic affairs officer at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)

In light of these problems, the proposed growth rate may not be possible for the coming two years. The inadequate infrastructure, small economy, less skilled human power is to blame for slow growth rate.

The new package of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), concessional facilities, to support low-income countries, became effective as of January 7, 2010.

This far-reaching reform more than doubles lending resources, provides exceptional interest relief, and offers new lending instruments that are more flexible and responsive to individual country needs, according to an IMF press release.

Key elements of the reform include three new lending instruments, interest relief, and permanently higher concessionality.

The Extended Credit Facility will provide flexible medium-term support; the Standby Credit Facility will address short-term and precautionary needs; and the Rapid Credit facility will offer emergency support with limited conditionality.

The Fund has also relieved developing countries from paying interest on outstanding IMF concessional loans until the end of 2011 to help low-income countries cope with the global crisis. Permanently higher concessionality of Fund financial support refers to regularly reviewed annual interest rates so as to preserve a higher level of concessionality.

People rushed to Miki's Fashion attracted by a big sale that involved 15 to 70pc discounts starting from Wednesday, December 23, 2009. Women enjoyed "broad selections at bargain prices" while some male shoppers were heard complaining of "lack of size options, selection varieties and next to zero discounts." The sale is expected to last for a month unless Miki's runs out of stock by then. It is in all its branches in Addis Abeba. Miki's shop at Getu Commercial Center was overwhelmed by large numbers of eager shoppers.

Meaza Ashenafi (left), founder and former executive director of the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, is now the chairperson of the committee which initiated the idea of starting a women's bank, currently under formation. Last Friday evening, November 13, 2009, the initiators invited prominent businesswomen to a consultation meeting held at the Belgium Embassy. Rahel Zewde, wife of Gunther Sleeuwangen, Belgian Ambassador to Ethiopia, is one of the ten women initiators who are involved in different business sectors. The initiators, who submitted their application to the National Bank of Ethiopia more than a week ago, are waiting for its approval to open a blocked account and start selling shares to the public. They expect the approval to come within a week or two.

The Ethio Poultry Expo was held at the Addis Abeba Exhibition Centre from November 4 to 6, 2009. The expo was organized by a Sudanese company, Expo Team Services Co. with an Ethiopian partner Prana Promotion. The organizers expressed their hope that the expo would be a springboard to attract international companies to enter the poultry markets in Ethiopia and other African countries. Culture and Tourism State Minister, Mahmoud Ahmed Gass, visited the expo where various poultry technologies were displayed.

The construction of the condominium houses of the Gergi site were completed six months ago. Since then, residents have started moving in. Nonetheless, the houses have no electricity and the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) was only able to provide power to some of the residents. Consequently, residents with no access to power are sharing with those who have power by using cables which they have extended themselves. Some of the cables extend for 400 metres, Abebe Daneo, a resident, told Fortune. The cables cost about one Birr per metre and the selling residents could charge the buyers up to 50 Br for a month's share of electricity.