It has been widely recognized that the Ethiopian international trade has been in trouble for so long despite the growth it has been registering. The time consuming and costly customs clearance process, the weak and poorly coordinated logistics and transport services and the underdeveloped warehouse and inspection mechanism among others have been obstructing the performance of the sector.
Seeing Tadesse Mesfin’s painting – Kelem Kebiw [The Painter] at the age of 16 was a life changing experience for Henok Getachew. Since then, he was immersed in art. Born in 1976, Henok later on went to the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design and graduated with a certificate in General Art in 1997. Since then, Henok has painted dozens of paintings, mainly on the walls of new hotels and restaurants in town and worked for beverage companies as a sign painter. He started doubting his artistic acumen and whether he will be able to live off his promotional paintings when digital art and signage took over the pictorial advertisement business.
Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya agreed to begin issuance of a single tourist visa, aimed at easing and promoting tourism among the three states. The resolution to issue a single visa to tourists came after delegates from the three countries held a two-day long meeting in Kigali on August 1 and 2.
British oil and gas explorer, Tullow Oil has confirmed commercial viability of Kenya’s oil and announced that it will start negotiations with the Government on development and production.
Tullow, which has been prospecting with Africa Oil, another Canadian explorer, said that results of drilling, wire line logs and samples of reservoir fluid confirmed a new oil discovery with net pay of over 40 meters in the Auwerwer and Upper Lokhone targets.
Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya agreed to begin issuance of a single tourist visa, aimed at easing and promoting tourism among the three states. The resolution to issue a single visa to tourists came after delegates from the three countries held a two-day long meeting in Kigali on August 1 and 2.
They agreed to charge USD100 per tourist intending to visit the three countries. Each of the three states will claim USD30 from the Single Visa fees while the balance of USD10 will be set aside for technical operations. The fee would be paid at the point of entry into any of the three countries for up to 90 days.
Kenyan traders of “khat”, a stimulus quite common in East Africa, called for the expulsion of British troops and farmers and a boycott of U.K. products in retaliation to a planned ban on trade of the leaves.
U.K. Home Secretary Theresa May told parliament on July 3 that “khat” will be categorized as a Class C drug, leading to jail terms of as long as two years for possession and 14 years for dealing in it.
Ethiopia is identified as one of the four African countries in PC16 – Post China 16: countries best suited to succeed China as the world’s low-cost, export-oriented economic hub, according to a projection by stratford, a renowned geopolitical intelligence firm. The report indicates, the international system opens the door to low-wage countries with appropriate infrastructure and sufficient order to do business. Low-wage countries seize the opportunity and climb upon the escalator of the international system and development.
The Ministry of Education (MoE) will soon start classifying private schools in the country into different categories based on a package adopted in March 2013. Schools will be categorized from level 1 through level 5 based on standards included in the new package. The new document entitled National Schools Classification Package, is an extension of the quality education package that the Ministry introduced in 2006.
Ethiopian Airlines has secured USD 22 million loan from the PTA Bank, the Eastern and Southern Africa Trade and Development Bank on Monday, September 9, 2012. The loan will go to financing the first phase of the Airlines housing project which aims to build 1,192 houses for its employees, according to Ethiopian CEO Tewelde Gebre-Mariam.
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, in his first official visit to Kenya in November 2012, elaborated how it will be profitable for Kenyans to invest in Ethiopia. During this meeting with the country’s business people, he mentioned some of the benefits they will reap if they engage in Africa’s second populous nation. He mentioned the natural wealth and cheap labour in the nation to sway his audience. Among other things, he stressed that the country has one of the cheapest electric fare in the world, making it an ideal place to establish a manufacturing plant. But what the Premier short fall of disclosing to the potential investors was how his country is also among the nations where power interruptions and sporadic blackouts and brown outs (reductions in voltage) are all but common, and in fact part of everyday life.
Berihun Mekonnen
Ethiopian Business Review
Mikias Merhatsidk