The Big Apple International, owner of New York New York Café and Restaurant, which is located on Africa road, is to open a 4 stars standard hotel- New York New York Addis Hotel, which is planned to be operational starting September, 2013, Heran Tesfaye, marketing manager of its sister company, Cosmo Trading told EBR.

ethio telecom’s alleged poor network quality is reported to have slowed the dissemination and maintenance of cash register machines since March 3, 2013, according to the tax information administration directorate of Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA).

The state monopoly telecom service provider, provides the GPRS service- that creates a wireless connection between a cash register and ERCA’s server. This enables the machines to send transaction reports to the revenue authority.

Another will-be addition to the insurance industry, Debub Universal Insurance S.C., is going to be operational starting may 2013, making it the country’s 15th private insurance company, Birhanu Tesfaye, administrator of the promoters’ executive committee told EBR. Having floated shares since December 2012, the promoters hope to raise Br 50 million. Most of the promotors had prior experience of organizing the foudation of the Debub Global Bank. They were planning to name the company Debub Global Insurance. However, National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) didn’t allow them as it would create conflict of interest with Global Insurance.

Habesha Constructions and Materials Development (HCMD) will hand over its first round of homes to customers in September, 2013, Eng. Bekele Gadissa, general manager of the company told EBR. “384 houses will be ready for a hand over,” said Bekele.

A number of hotels are either opening up, expanding or set to join the industry in this fiscal year, according to industry insiders. As the city becomes a major travel destination the business is becoming lucrative. And one of the new additions that joined the industry is Aphrodite Hotel. The 4 star hotel made the latest entrance to the hospitality industry with inaugural ceremony held in its new facility on March 22, 2013. The hotel which is owned by Desalegn Mengistu, a name normally associated with oil seeds exports is located around Kazanchis. The facility is built on 538m2 area of land and has 52 rooms divided in to executive, deluxe and twin standard rooms, according to Dawit Girmay, front office and marketing division manager. The hotel which was established with a capital of 60 million Br has created job opportunities for 115 people.

Dubbed as “a frontier for exploration in Africa” by Richard Chase, CEO of Nyota Minerals Ltd, the British minerals giant, Ethiopia is getting preeminence in the mining sector and has become a destination for big multinational mining companies. 252 companies had so far taken mining license, according to the Ministry. The sector was also able to earn 1.5 billion dollar during the first half of the growth and transformation plan. Most of these earnings came from gold, ornamental stones and tantalum.

During the Christmas holiday exhibition at the Addis Ababa Exhibition Center one thing was visible- the presence of quite a number of Syrian exhibitors. The Syrians were trading from textile to jewelry and housing appliances. And most of them were pleased with the business.

A diagnosis on the corruption level of eight selected sectors in Ethiopia was made public on January 13, by the World Bank. The study which was done in collaboration with the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC), follows a sectoral approach citing its easiness to understand and focus as a reason.  Dubbed as keen to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) sectors that were included in the study contains: health, education, water, justice, construction, land, telecommunications and mining. These sectors are categorized in three groups called basic service sector, old investment sectors and new sectors, based on their service and time of establishment have shown mixed results in the study.

The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, which runs the Radisson Blu Hotels, appointed Christopher Pike, a British citizen who had been serving as General Manager of the Radisson Blu Hotel in Birmingham since June 2010 as its General Manager for its Hotel in Addis Ababa. Christopher Pike replaced Guillaume Massiera who has been running the hotel since February 2010. Massiera has left to establish his own business.