Charisma Ecology to build 13 new Resorts in Ethiopia

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Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Eco Tourism is getting a major boost as seven investors are coming together to build thirteen hotels in places that were previously inaccessible to tourists.


Lake Abaya, Southern Ethiopia

Charisma Ecology plans to build resorts in pristine wilderness areas that, although spectacular were seen by only few because of their location. Formed five weeks ago, they plan to build first class cultural resorts in 13 different places.

“Ethiopian classical architecture and tribal professionals will take the major role in constructing the resorts mainly located in the southern part of the country. We want to preserve the ancient housing construction styles but these will be first class traditional resorts,” board member, Daniel Damtew explained.

According to the plan, during the first phase about four resorts will be built in less than two years, after that they still plan to expand.
The areas selected for the future resort centres will be previously undiscovered strategic tourist areas. They also want to find places that are reachable by many means of transportation.

“The first 13 resorts will be in recognized tourist destinations but we have a plan to identify new potential tourist areas,” Daniel explained.
Among the exciting recreational activities are fishing and boat rides on the Omo River.
The resort locations include; Tana Lake, at Zege Peninsula, accessible via water and land and the nearest location to historical Tana islands.
Kosoye Resort, 23Km from Gonder town, a perfect area to view the Semen Mountains, and Omorati Resort where Omo, southern Ethiopia; Abaya Lake, the largest lake in the rift valley that is located around Arbaminch. Abaya Resort facility will include a conference centre, golf club and boat trip to Dilla town. Entoto, the mountain on the northern outskirt of Addis will also have a resort. The resort on Abayata/Shala Lake, which is a popular place for African aquatic birds and hot spring water, Geralta Resort, which is a tourist destination with various rocking churches along the highway from Mekele to Axum, and resorts in Bale and Afar are other selected destinations.

Haileabe Meresa, from Peace Journey in Africa, Awad Mohamed, owner of Adika Tour and Travel, Daniel Damtew, owner of Glory Ethiopia Travel and Tour, Munier Ahmed, owner of Habesha Restaurant, Eng Tadesse Tessema, owner of Holland Car, Alem Mengistu, who manages different hotels and Arkebom Kebede, who owns a travel company have come together to invest 90 million birr in Charisma Ecology.

Daniel, one of the five board members told Capital that the company has plans to include other hotel owners, travel and tour agents. The other founding board members are Awad, Arkebom, Hileabe and Munir.

Ricardo to produce engines for Lifan’s SUV in Ethiopia
Feb 4th, 2012

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (The Reporter) – Ricardo, an engine maker giant based in the U.K., has partnered with Lifan, a Chinese car maker, to produce the engine for Lifan’s sport utility vehicles (SUV) expected to hit the market here in the coming months, said representatives of the Yangfan Motors, subsidiary of Lifan in Ethiopia.

Engineers from Ricardo and Lifan have produced a VVT I engine for Lifan’s latest SUVs, a.k.a. Lifan X-60s, the engine being the latest in the industry.

Having a 1,800 cc power and an electrical fuel transmission passages, the engine will make the Chinese new brand to become fuel efficient and more powerful than its peers in the market, according to the representatives.

Lifan’s SUV is currently being tested here to check its compatibility with the weather and terrain here in Ethiopia where it has to be driven until it covers a distance of 22,000 km, the representatives said.

The representatives said that Lifan’s SUVs will hit the market here within three to four months’ time, if all goes according to plan.

The representatives declined to mention the price tag of the new car, preferring to disclose it when the vehicle hits the market.

February 09, 2012
Ethiopia Set to Achieve Universal Primary Education by 2015

Phillip Walter Wellman | Addis Ababa
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Ethiopian school children attend a class at a school in Addis Ababa (File Photo).Ethiopia, one of Africa's poorest countries, is among the few on track to achieve the goal of universal primary education by 2015. Our correspondent in Addis Ababa, reports on how, according to analysts, an otherwise repressive government is winning praise for its campaign to bring learning to the people.

“I can say we made [an] education revolution in the history of this country," said Petros Woldegiorgis.

Education Ministry Spokesman Petros Woldegiorgis tells how Ethiopia, which had fewer than 2,000 primary schools 15 years ago now has 28,0000, and is on the verge of providing access to education for all of its 20 million school age children.
“We gave great priority for education," he said. "Why we are doing this is we know the value of education. Therefore, the huge investment was made for [the] education sector by this government.”

Development aid experts say Ethiopia has devoted as much as one quarter of all public expenditures to schools during the past few years. This commitment is prompting international donors to pump in an estimated $150 million a year to support the effort.

The World Bank's senior education specialist in Ethiopia, Rajendra Joshi, says the investment is beginning to pay off.

“If we look at the progress toward achieving universal primary education from 2003 to 2009-10, it increased by 40 percentage points, which is huge," said Joshi. "Ethiopia at the beginning of the '90s used to be one of the worst countries in terms of participation rate. Now participation rate in primary education is 86 percent - grades one to eight.”

But getting children into classrooms is the easy part. The challenge is bringing them up to basic literacy levels.

The rapid growth in the number of schools has created a severe shortage of qualified teachers. In most classrooms, there are no books. Surveys indicate that many children leave school without learning to read.

The nearly $1 billion a year in U.S. aid to Ethiopia includes a five-year $100 million commitment for education. USAID's chief education officer in Ethiopia, Allyson Wainer, says the plan is to bring reading skills to 15 million students.

"Currently the books don't exist, and the curriculum doesn't exist from a reading perspective, and that's what we'll be developing in the coming year," said Wainer. "And the government's taking it very seriously. And we're taking it extremely seriously in that our goal is to contribute to the literacy rate and the learning of children in grades one, two and three, so they have the skills they need to be literate."

The program also aims to end the literacy gender gap. Ethiopian girls traditionally have lagged far behind boys in school attendance and achievement.

Wainer says neighborhood schools should remove all obstacles to educating girls.

"Knowing that girls can safely get to school because the distances is not overwhelming, and that girls can access a safe school, hopefully a separate latrine facility for boys and girls, teachers who have been trained on the needs of girls, and girls were the ones who generally weren't going to school as well," she said.

In its quest to meet the goal of education for all, Ethiopia has also established mobile classrooms to travel with nomadic herders who roam the countryside in search of grazing land for their animals.

Education Ministry Spokesman Petros Woldegiorgis says being poor should not be a nation's excuse for failing to make education accessible to all of its citizens.

African Development Bank and Ethiopia signs 234.5 million US Dollars loan for Roads to better connect to South Sudan and Kenya.

On Feb 12, 2012
One of the roads to give the new South Sudanese market access to Ethiopian goods, Djibouti Port

In a bid to foster regional trade between Ethiopia and its neighbours, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has given a 234.5 million-dollar loan to the Ethiopian government for the upgrading and reconstruction of two roads to enable the county to connect with two of its neighbours.

The roads to be financed by the bank, include a 112km stretch from Bedele to Metu, which is part of the road network that will connect Addis Abeba with Juba, the capital of South Sudan, and a 197km road between Hawassa and Ageremariam, which is the part of Mombassa-Nairobi-Addis Abeba Road Corridor.

The loan agreement was signed between Ahmed Shide, state minister for the Ministry of Finance & Economic Development (MoFED), and Lamin G. Barrow, a resident representative of the bank on Friday, February 3, 2012 at the headquarters of the latter, located on King Gorge IV Street.

The two roads will pass through Oromia and Southern regional states. For the Bedele-Metu Road, which will connect Aba Bora Zone with roads to the capital, the bank availed 64 million dollars. The road will open up the South Sudan market to Ethiopian goods and services and enable South Sudan to use Djibouti Port.

Out of the total, the largest amount loaned, 168 million dollars, is to be used for the upgrading and construction of the Hawasssa-Ageremariam Road, which is part of the Trans-African Highway network designed to promote regional trade and integration. This is the last section of the road corridor for completion, which will give Ethiopia access to Kenya’s Port of Mombasa.“The Port will be of easier access than Djibouti Port for imports from South Africa and [will also provide access to] Uganda,” Abdu Mohammed, deputy director general for the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA), told Fortune.

The road corridor also aims at facilitating trade activity between the two influential East African countries, where trade has been low compared to other neighbouring countries because of the poor infrastructure, including the roads.

Indeed, Ethiopia’s trade with Kenya was only 56 million dollars whereas the latter’s trade was 527 million dollars with Tanzania and 739 million dollars with Uganda in 2010.

The infrastructural gaps have been identified as one of the hindrances of trade within Africa, in general, as they increase the cost of doing business. The issue received much emphasis during the African Union (AU) Summit, which was conducted in Addis Abeba, last week.

The construction of the 198km road from Hawassa to Aeremariam involves the rehabilitation of the bituminous standard road, including the construction of bridges and drainage structures, estimated to affect around 1,330 settlers in the south.

The road’s civil works are to be subdivided into three separate contracts, according to Abdu. The ERA, responsible for the construction, has evaluated companies in a prequalification tender and submitted the names of the companies selected to the AfDB for approval.

[B]The signing of this loan for the two roads has brought to a total of 500km the roads to be funded by the Bank in the country. The Bank also financed the road construction of the Ageremariam-Yabelo-Mega-Moyale Road. The construction of Ageremariam-Yabelo, which stretches 97km is being constructed at a cost of 740.6 million Br by an Egyptian contractor, while the 98km road from Yabelo to Mega is being conducted by a Chinese contractor for 770 million Br. However, for the 109km road from Mega to Moyale, contractors have not yet been selected, according to Abdu.

The Bank will also sign the same type of agreement with the Kenyan government for the construction of the final section on the Kenyan side, according to Barrow.[B]

IT park in first phase of construction.

Addis Ababa, February 23 (WIC) – The first phase of the Information Technology (IT) Park project, on which construction began three years ago, will be finalized next year, according to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT).

The Park which lies in an area of 200 hectares of land is located at Addis Ababa on the eastern side of Bole International Airport, just a few kilometers away from the center of Addis Ababa.

“The first phase with an area of approximately 70 hectares which consisted of MCIT Headquarter, data and incubation centers is expected to be completed next year,” Beker Seid, Communication and Public Service Head of MCIT told WIC.

The second phase is expected to be finalized after three years, he said.

The establishment of the IT Park would help attract overseas investment, generate foreign earnings, stimulate growth of domestic ICT industry and create employment and career opportunities for Ethiopian citizens, he said.

Upon full build-out, the IT Park will generate job opportunities for about 300,000 compatriots, he indicated.

According to Beker, the IT Park is expected to cost from 800-900 million birr to be fully financed by the government of Ethiopia.

The project positions Ethiopia 2nd in IT Park in Eastern Africa next to Kenya, he indicated.

Tendaho Sugar Factory 60% complete
As the three old factories that supply 300,000 tonnes to the national market could not meet the local demand, the government has launched various activities to build the nine new sugar factories, to complete the Tendaho plant whose construction is well in progress and complete the expansion works on the three old ones (Wonji-Shewa, Fincha and Metahara) so as to realize the import substitution national target and start exporting the commodity. A number of reasons drive the government to attach special attention to sugar development.

Firstly, Ethiopia is endowed with huge land resource suitable for the development of the commodity. Secondly, the substantial increase in its demand as countries' economies continue to grow around the world and the availability of large export market for African sugar in the European market is also another opportunity. Tendaho Sugar Factory is among the factories under construction in the Afar State as part of the national effort at a cost of 11.8 billion birr . ''The construction of this factory was launched in 2006.

However, due to various challenges, we can say that the project was effectively started only two years back. Now, as you can see, it is well in progress,'' Factory Operations Project Deputy General Manager Endalkachew Zenebe told a group of journalists visiting the project site. The construction of the main factory plant is now 60 per cent complete, according to project officials.

6.4 billion birr(369 million US Dollar) offered to build CBE headquarter.

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Saturday, 03 March 2012

International contractors’ offers to build the headquarters of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) have turned out to be the largest ever in the real estate industry when the financial proposals of the companies opened last Saturday. Of the five runners-up vying with each other to clinch the rare lucrative building project, two were automatically dismissed as they score below 70 percent in their respective proposals, according to sources close to the projects.

Of the left three companies, China Jiangizu International offered the largest sum of over 6.4 billion to build what the bankers coined as iconic tower that will symbolize and serve as East Africa’s banking giant headquarters. China Jiangizu International was followed by a peer company, China State Construction, which made the second biggest offer of over 4.5 billion birr. Of the three runner-ups, the lower offer of over three billion birr was made by the unprecedented Dubai-based construction company, Associated Construction and Investment (ASCON), where expectations were rife “it will be a Chinese company again” to make the lowest offer for the rather grand building project in the country.
The other two disqualified contenders were Shakoji Palonji Middle East, an Indian company and Arab Contractors, an Egyptian firm for which the Development Bank of Egypt office in Ethiopia was lobbying with the concerned government bodies to let the company grip the grand project.

While the “design and build” bidders financial proposal had finally come to light after a “rigorous” evaluation of the technical proposals of the respective companies, there is little known about the “contract administration and supervision” bidders who were supposed to have been selected long ago and participated in evaluation of the “design and build” bidders, according to sources.

CBE has initially awarded the design work for the headquarters project to Universal Consultant, a local consultancy firm and HENN Architecten, a German company. However, an unprecedented dispute between the two has led the project to lag one year behind schedule, CBE’s president Bekalu Zeleke had told The Reporter earlier. After winning the contract by beating some 20 contenders, the two parties found themselves sinking into an unending row over benefit-sharing from the project before launching it in the first place.“It had been a challenging task to mediate between the two parties as the dispute involved benefit-sharing from the project,” Bekalu said then. “However, we were finally able to bring the two parties to come to terms.”

Yet, when the financial proposals of the bidders opened last Saturday, it was not attended by the would-be supervisors of the project, according to sources close to the project.

The bidders were required to include in their proposal conceptual design the building comprising of a model, and schematic designs; general experience, demonstrating a minimum of eight years of experience in the business; peak annual turnover of design and construction works for the last five years; particular design and construction experience of the firm; financial capability; experience in at least one design-build project where the minimum required annual volume of design and construction works for the successful bidder in any of the last five years shall be USD 100 Million for foreign contractors and USD 40 million for local firms, among others.

While the original designers of the building came up with a 50-plus storey building measuring some 200 meters high, the height of latest design, whose image has yet to be drafted, is limited to a maximum of 185.50 meters (46-storey, excluding the extra height of machine rooms for elevators, antenna height and the like) in accordance with the regulation of the Addis Ababa City Administration.

The winner of the lucrative project is expected to be disclosed in a month’s time, if all goes according to plan.

Originally expected to cost from one to two billion birr, the headquarters project consists of accommodation for all functions of the future head office, staff amenities and commercial centre, rental offices and parking space. The new facility will be built on a 10,528 sq.m. plot of land located adjacent to Ethiopia Hotel.
The design is expected to represent CBE’s status as a world-class bank in a manner that will portray strength and claim an imposing presence in the skyline of the central business district, according to the design program of the project.

In business for close to seven decades and currently operating over 500 branches nationwide, CBE has during the first six months of the current fiscal year seen its profit soaring to an all time high of 3.7 billion birr.

HWC Swiss AG wins Toussa Steel consultancy bid

Tuesday, 28 February 2012 08:27

An Austrian consulting company has been hired by Derba Group to bring to reality the largest steel factory in the country. Derba Group (DG) a new umbrella company which overseas three subsidiaries and 12 investment projects signed the agreement on Tuesday, February 21, 2012.



DG will supervise and manage long-term strategic investments by Ethiopian born Saudi billionaire, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Ali al Amoudi; including steel, mining, cement, agriculture, transport, hospitality, and real estate.

HWC Swiss AG won the bid floated by DG last year to consult on the Toussa Steel Factory (TSF) at a cost of about 80 million birr. The company will be paid over three years to oversee the contractors’ proposal, contract preparation, project management and engineering supervision of the factory to be built.

Contractors have submitted their bid proposal for the construction of the new steel plant on January 18, 2012. The evaluation process has already begun while the contact agreement between the selected contractor and the company will be signed in three months. The factory is expected to begin operating three years after the contract begins.

The factory will be built in the vicinity of Kombolcha Town in the Amhara regional state on 324hct of land. According to Capital sources, the new steel mill will consume an investment outlay of more than half a billion dollars. The factory needs 300 mega watts of electric power.
When completed TSF will produce 1.3 million ton of steel every year. The new steel plant with a melting shop and three rolling mills will produce re-bars (800,000 tons), wire- rods (150,000 tons), light sections (400,000 tons), medium sections (300,000 tons) and R 60 rails.

Somaliland to Be Part of Ethiopian Grid
March 8th, 2012

(HornTrade) – The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation is planning to put the south-eastern border town of Somaliland on Ethiopia’s grid.

Initial work to install electric transmission lines have been launched in the early although it is not yet known when the Corporation plans to begin electric transmission according to sources.

Ethiopia and Somaliland are negotiating an agreement to establish the conditions on which Ethiopia can supply electric power to capital of Somaliland Hargessa, claimed sources.

It is to be remembered that EEPCo has made arrangements to supply electricity to Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti already in its bid to become a power supplier in the region.

The Ethiopia-Sudan Transmission Line project will be finalized in the first quarter to 2012 at a cost of 41 million US dollars. The 230KV transmission line is expected to be 296KM long.

It is expected that Ethiopia will sell up to 100 MW of electricity to the Sudanese.

Ethiopia and Kenya have also worked out the details of a power supply arrangement which will require the two countries to construct over 1,000 Kilometers power interconnection lines to facilitate the power supply. It is expected that Ethiopia will construct 443 Kilometers of lines and 612 Kilometers will be constructed by Kenya.

The lines to be built between the two countries will have the capacity to carry 2000 MW. The construction of the interconnecting lines is expected to be funded by the African Development Bank and the World Bank.

The leaders of Ethiopia and Djibouti inaugurated the substation linking Djibouti to the Ethiopian power grid last October.

Twelve new leather projects this year

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Global Companies from China, Italy, India, Sudan, Israel, Turkey, Germany and the UK have 27 new leather investments primarily in footwear and garments.
Italian, Indian, Chinese, German and British companies will begin operating nine leather product investments and three finished leather investments. The 2.5 billion birr projects will be able to produce around 27,000 pieces of finished leather, 16,000 pairs of shoes and 2,000 garments.

According to the Leather Industry Development Institute (LIDI) the new leather factories will be located in Addis Ababa, Modjo 73Km south east of Addis Ababa, Gonder 744Km north of Addis Ababa and Sendafa 39Km North West of Addis Ababa.

The new leather projects expected to commence production this year are in line with the government’s recent directive which discourages the export of crust.
LIDI was established to support production in the leather industry, investment in the sector and marketing activities. It also gives technical support for factories to construct treatment plants to minimize environmental pollution.

The Ethiopian government aims to earn USD 206 million in revenue from the leather sector in the current fiscal year.

By the end of the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) the government expects USD 500 million in revenue from leather exports and has adjusted tax for imported raw materials to accomplish this goal.

The Ethiopian Leather Industry Development Institute recently teamed up with the Ethiopian Leather Industry Association (ELIA) to organize the fifth African Leather Fair (AALF) which was held from March 1-3, 2012 focusing on high end local products in order to boost leather export revenues.

The leather fair brought 185 exhibitors from Ethiopia and 37 other countries. It featured a wide array of leather products including foot wares, chemicals and garments.

ELIA is a private association that currently has 47 companies as its members represent a cross section of producers and exporters of animal products including cows, goats, sheep and camels.