Eritrean refugee crisis in Europe

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Dutch investor plans five-star hotel, real-estate development (Capital Ethiopia)

Dutch investor plans five-star hotel, real-estate development (Capital Ethiopia)

By Andualem Sisay

Absorbed by the current investment climate and opportunities in Ethiopia, a Dutch national is to invest over 40 mln USD on a five star hotel and real-estate ventures in Addis Ababa.
Mr. Cvan Hal and his Ethiopian wife, Mrs. Genet Abebe, have decided to live in Ethiopia after concluding their 18 year business in the Netherlands. They have now secured 50,000 square meters in Bole area for real-estate purposes and are expecting 4-5,000 square meters of land in the same area for the five-star hotel they plan to build.
"We decided to move to Ethiopia encouraged by the business opportunities and the climate of the country," says Mr. Cvan Hal, an Energy Engineer by profession who owns, along with his wife; Cool Force- a company engaged in the transport and energy sectors.
"The market opportunities in the Netherlands are minimal when compared to that of Ethiopia, as the European market features more competition.
There are lots of opportunities in Ethiopia for an investor," he said.
When completed, the two investments are expected to create 330 permanent jobs.
Commenting on the areas that need improvement in the relevant offices he has visited so far, Mr. Hal suggested: "to make the money transfer short, easy and simple for a foreign investor, the National Bank of Ethiopia has to have one section that deals specifically with letters of credit. "This will help to reverse the current long process that consumes three to four days of a foreign investor by rotating from one office to another."
He also indicated that the investment authorities and other offices that deal with foreign investors need to prepare a web-site or brochures in various international languages so as to save the time an investor wastes not knowing where to go, which process to accomplish first, how to go about it and what documents are expected.

Source: Capital Ethiopia

Black Gold : a documentary

After oil, coffee is the most actively traded commodity in the world with $80 billion dollars in retail sales. But farmers make as little as three cents for every cup of coffee sold in the U.S. or Europe. Most of the rest of the money goes to the middlemen, especially the four giant food conglomerates which control the coffee market. Black Gold sits in on the coffee auctions in Addis Ababa, London and New York where the fate of the coffee growing nations is decided. [Read more..]