topix.net Ethiopia May 4 2015

Protests in Tel Aviv over alleged police mistreatment of Ethiopian Jews turned violent Sunday, resulting in twenty-three officers being injured, according to Israeli police. The planned demonstration by the Ethiopian Jewish community - incensed over a video gone viral that shows a uniformed Israel Defense Forces soldier of Ethiopian descent being assaulted by police - had been peaceful for hours before things took a violent turn. Authorities employed horses, water cannons and smoke to disperse the crowd in Rabin Square, which had been chanting slogans such as "a violent cop should be in jail." Twenty-six protesters were arrested, according to Israeli spokeswoman Luba Samri. The soldier in the video, Damas Fekadeh, has called for calm and restraint. The Tel Aviv protest comes on the heels of a largely peaceful demonstration in Jerusalem  that drew more than 1,000 people (Newkerala.com, April 29).

The Indian footprint in Africa just got bigger with Balaaji Manufacturing Plc, an Indian-owned company, launching the brand new electrical motorcycle, popularly known as "scooty", assembled in Ethiopia. The "scooty" brand, which has endeared itself to customers in India, is set to cash in on the Ethiopian market, where more and more people have taken to two-wheelers over the past three years, which has made the market grow at an annual pace of about 30%. The company located in Addis Ababa's Legetafo area in the Oromia Regional State, began its factory operations in 2014 on a 3,600 m² plot of land with an initial capital of $275,000 and began production in January, this year. The scooties are eco-friendly, low expense vehicles, causing no noise pollution, or vibration. They also boast of maintenance-free batteries, stability alarm (remote control), push button start, auto lock and voice alert lockisystem for parking. These electric bikes run at about 60 kmph and one charge of six-to-eight-hours enables a ride of over 60 km (Newkerala.com, May 3).
Ethio-Telecom Corporate Compunction Officer, Abdurahim Mohammed, told WIC recently that the rural telecom access within 5 km radius service has currently reached 96%. "And efforts are underway to achieve the coverage to 100% within the remaining months of the budget year," he said (AllAfrica.com, Apr 29).

Ethiopian Investment Agency said that the Government expects this year to be a record for foreign direct investment, up 25% from last year's US$1.2bln to reach a record US 1.5bln, with successful efforts to attract overseas manufacturing companies. The head of the agency Fitsum Arega said that the figures do not include plans by China's Huajian, the world's biggest shoemaker, for an additional planned US$2bln to build its own industrial park and expand its existing Ethiopian workforce to 30,000 in the next few years (Harowo.com,  April 28)

 A new asphalt road that links the source of Ethiopian specialty coffee grower of Bensa Woreda of the Sidama Zone with the regional center of Hawassa was inaugurated. The 51 km concrete asphalt road project is constructed by a local contractor Alemayehu Ketema General Contractor at a cost of 427m birr. The road links three weredas of the Sidama Zone with the SNNPS regional state seat (Capital Ethiopia, April 28).

My Shoes will be the fourth foreign-owned leather shoe factory of 20 in operation and will increase capital outlay to $60m in three years A Turkish shoe company laid its cornerstone on a 70,000sqm plot in Debre Birhan on April 24 for the construction of a shoe and leather manufacturing plant targeting exclusivity. My Shoes Shoe & Leather Manufacturing Plc will initially invest 35m $ on the land which it leased for 80 years at 50 cent/sqm when it acquired its licence in February 2015, according to one of its owners, Mehmet Yesildag, who is the major shareholder and general manager of the company. The factory, which will have a production capacity of 30,000 shoes, will eventually push its capital to 60m $ after three years. The company decided to invest in Ethiopia because of low cost of labour and energy and better tax incentives for export, said Mehmet (AllAfrica.com, April 27) .