Ethiopian cotton growers raised a demand for establishment of a separate federal authority empowered to address the industry issues, during a consultative meeting with officials of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research and the Ministries of Agriculture and Industry.

They alleged that the Ministry of Agriculture bureau designated to take care of agriculture investment is falling short in addressing the industry issues.

HMH, the Dubai-based Hospitality Management Holdings, is negotiating with Alsam Group, one of the high-profile retailers and investors in the country.

With a portfolio of four international hotel brands and over fifty hotels across the Middle East and Africa, HMH top management including the president, Michel Noblet, was here two weeks ago to learn in detail about Alsam Group.

ETHIOPIA became landlocked in 1992, when its Red Sea coast was lost to the new state of Eritrea. It lost access to its former ports soon afterwards. Since the outbreak of a vicious two-year war between the two countries in 1998, the Red Sea ports of Massawa and Assab have been off-limits to Ethiopian freight (see map). Instead, Ethiopia has to rely on Djibouti for imports and exports. That comes at a heavy price: it costs more to truck a container from Djibouti to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, than to ship the same container from China to Djibouti.

One of Ethiopia’s leading banking groups United Bank is poised to open its first branch outside Ethiopia in South Sudan’s capital Juba, according to a release from the bank.

The new venture will make it Ethiopia’s first private bank to break into the banking industry inside the continent’s newest nation. The Kenya Commercial Bank also has a presence in South Sudan.

In a good example of brilliant regional solutions, Kenya and Ethiopia are solving the issue of (illegal arms) by bilateral trade. A livestock market in Samburu at the Kenyan-Ethiopian borders is helping in conflict settlement and changing the lifestyle in of people. If other countries study this example and try to implement it in other areas they can build a stronger and peaceful Eastern African region. All the countries in the region face similar problems of tense and vulnerable borders which are occupied with out-of-law gangs and tribal militias. The shared borders are always characterized by the least indicators of human development.

Market link valued at over 57.9 million Birr created to Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) operators in North Gonder Zone of Amhara State, the zonal micro and small enterprises development office said.

Office head, Fentahun Sitotaw told ENA that some 4,800 operators organized in 1,630 enterprises in four town administrations and 20 woredas of the zone benefited from the market link.

The African country has formed an agreement with International Saudi Agriculture for the export of organic bananas

The Ethiopian Horticulture Development Agency (EHDA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with International Saudi Agriculture (ISA), enabling the latter to export organic bananas to Saudi Arabia, according to a report from Ethiopian Business News.

Retaining his top position for the second consecutive year, Saudi prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud became the richest Arab in the world, followed by the Ethiopian-Saudi Investor Mohammad Al Amoudi, according to the Forbes list of billionaires.

Berhan International Bank SC has hired Ernst & Young (E&Y) to undertake an IT security audit, which will enable the Bank to launch Internet banking.

The agreement, signed on Monday, April 4, 2012, involved an undisclosed sum, but such contracts typically cost as much as 50,000 dollars, depending on the size of the bank and the services that are intended to be introduced, according to Amaha Bekele, the IT advisory head for Ernst & Young East Africa. Ernst & Young agreed to deliver the work within six weeks.

Premium Print Plc, the first ever printer toner cartridge assembler in Ethiopia, is to build a factory with the capacity to produce 40,000 toner cartridges, annually.

The company, a subsidiary of UK-based EC Solutions Ltd, aims to substitute the country’s import of toner cartridges and export its products to East African countries. It was established in 2011, with a registered capital 3.5 million Br, by an Ethiopian citizen, Biniam Hirut, and two Britons, Steven Green and Richard Harron, chairman and managing director of EC Solutions, respectively.

Egyptian club side Al Ahly of Egypt qualified to the next round of the Orange CAF Champions League after defeating Ethiopian Coffee 3-0 at the Military Academy Stadium in Cairo at the weekend.

Brazilian born Fabio Junior opened the scoring for the "Cairo Reds" after 8 minutes before Mohamed Abou Treika added a brace in the second half. The game was held behind closed doors for security concerns.

Ethiopia has signed double taxation avoidance pacts with four countries, including its growing trading partners India and China.

The agreements, also with Sudan and Egypt, were together tabled in the House of Peoples' Representatives for approval Thursday. The Double Taxation Agreements (DTAs) are expected to come into force once they are approved by parliament which could take up to three weeks.

An Ethiopian company majority-owned by Saudi billionaire Mohammed al-Amoudi plans to invest $600 million over two years to produce edible oil, its general manager said.

Horizon Plantations Ethiopia leased a 20,000-hectare (49,400-acre) plot in the northwestern Benishangul-Gumuz region last month to grow groundnuts, as part of a government drive to boost commercial agriculture, Jemal Ahmed said in an interview o
n April 3 in the capital, Addis Ababa.

The last decade has shown that in the race to claim the 21st century, Africa will give Asia and a rising Latin America a run for its money. McKinsey global recently published a ground breaking publication named “Lions on the Move: the progress and potential of African Economies”. Drawing a direct parallel to the economic emergence of the Asian Tiger Economies, the study fixed impressive numbers against the impending rise of the African Lion economies. “There is no more impressive an African Lion economy on the move than that of Ethiopia” says Henock Assefa, Managing Partner of Precise Consult International PLC, the organizers of the Ethiopia Investment Summit 2012.

Members of a trade mission led by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Monday discussed on ways to further strengthen existing trade ties with AACCSA.

AACCSA Deputy Secretary-General, Teferi Asfaw on the occasion said that trade relation between Ethiopia and Britain has been growing since the past few years.
In 2011, trade exchange between the two countries was 225 million USD. Ethiopia earned 83 million USD of the stated sum from export of products to Britain.