During the first quarter of 2007/08, the Ethiopia Investment Agency and regional investment offices have approved 1793 investment projects with a total investment capital of 23.1billion birr.

According to the quarterly report of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), the number of approved investment projects and their planned capital increased by 5.91 and 23.8 percent, over the preceding quarter.

Year-on-year basis, however, the number of approved investment projects and the amount of registered capital were down by 4 and 15.7 percent, respectively.

Ownership wise, all the projects were private investments, out of which 73.7 percent of the projects and 45.6 percent of the investment capital were domestic. The respective figures for foreign investment were 26.3and 54.4 percent.

No public investment project was registered during the review period. Upon commencement of operation, the approved investment projects are expected to generate employment opportunities for 271,511 people, both on permanent and temporary basis.

Regarding sectoral share, real estate, renting and business activities accounted for about 27.8 of the approved investment projects, followed by manufacturing (21. 2 percent), agriculture (20.6 percent) and hotels and restaurants (11.2 percent).

In terms of total investment capital, real estate, renting and business took the lion's share (26.6 percent) followed by agriculture (26.2 percent) and manufacturing (26.0 percent).

The approved investment projects in the agriculture sector are expected to create 36.8 percent of the total permanent employment followed by manufacturing (23.1 percent) and real estate, renting and business activities (18.2 percent).

Regarding temporary employment, 66.5 percent is expected to be in agriculture, 9.9 percent in real estate, renting and business activities and 8.1 percent in manufacturing

During the quarter under review, a significant proportion (35.5 percent) of the total number of approved investment projects went to Addis Ababa, followed by SNNPR (18.0 percent) and Amhara (15.0 percent).

In terms of approved investment capital, Oromia attracted 32.5 percent followed by Addis Ababa (22.9 percent) and Amhara (15.2 percent). Multiregional projects accounted for 3.3 percent of the total approved investment capital in the review quarter.

Meanwhile, according to the data obtained from Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise, 452,629 metric tons of petroleum products were imported in the first quarter of 2007/08, which showed 17.7 percent and 16.6 percent increase over the previous quarter and the corresponding period of last year. Quarterly increment in volume was observed in all products, namely, Regular Gasoline (26.4 percent), Jet Fuel (32.6 percent), Fuel Oil (5.1 percent) and Gas Oil (12.5 percent).

Gas oil imports accounted for about 55 percent of the total volume of petroleum imports during the review quarter On C & F basis, oil import bill during the review quarter amounted to 2.61 billion birr, which was 29 and 30 percent higher than the level in the previous quarter and the same period of last fiscal year, respectively, as the value of all types of petroleum products increased.

The FOB prices of petroleum products on average have shown 3.3 percent increase over the previous quarter and 5.9 percent rise vis-à-vis a year earlier. The quarterly increase in the FOB prices of petroleum products was attributable to the price increment of jet fuel (6.2 percent), fuel oil (9.8 percent) and gas oil (6.6 percent) despite 4.7 percent decline in that of regular gasoline. Year-on-year basis, the FOB prices of all petroleum products have increased with fuel oil exhibiting substantial upward move.

With regard to domestic petroleum price developments, average retail prices, as approximated by Addis Ababa retail prices, remained constant during the quarter under review due to the fuel price stabilization scheme of the government.

Year-on-year basis, however, the average retail prices rose by 3.8 percent. Component wise, the prices of MGR, fuel oil, gas oil (ADO), and kerosene, increased by 1.3, 3.8 and 5.1 percent, respectively.

The total electricity generation during the review period was 907 million kWh, which was 11.6 and 7.9 percent higher than the preceding quarter and the first quarter of FY 2006/07, respectively.

While hydropower accounted for 98.8 of the total power supply in the stated quarter, the remaining 12 percent power was generated from thermal source. Looking at the detail power supply by system category, 99.3 percent of electricity generation was as usual from the interconnected system and the remaining 0.7 percent from the self contained system.

As per government's plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP), it is planned to increase electricity generation capacity of the country by completing the power stations under construction and building new ones and increase the distribution to reach rural towns and kebeles.

By 2010, when the power generation projects such as Tekeze (300 MW), Gilgel-Gibe II (420MW), Amertenesh (97 MW), Beles (420 MW), Wind Power (50 MW) and Yayo (100 MW) are completed, the country's power generation capacity is expected to reach

2218 MW per hour. The number of electrified cities and towns is also planned to reach 6000.