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Tuesday, August 11, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.

Making headlines today:

The Ethopian government says that India's Emami Biotech will invest 80-milion-dollars in the country to make biofuel while another Indian company, Anmol Products, has opened a 5-million-dollar paper factory.

Emami Biotech plans to grow jatropha and other plants on 12 000 hectares of land and to build a factory that will extract oil from the plants to make cheap biofuel for export to India.

The government says that the first phase of the project has already begun at Awash Sebat Kilo, some 250 km east of the capital Addis Ababa, growing Jatropha, sunflower, castor, pulses and various herbs at a cost of 24-million-dollars.

Ethiopia has allocated 1,6-million hectares of land for investors willing to develop commercial farms.

Companies from Gulf and east Asian nations have been rushing to buy up farmland around the world to secure food supplies.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick says that the Congo must improve governance in its energy sector to attract investment and exploit its full potential.

Zoellick was speaking at the site of the Inga hydroelectric power project, built some 30 years ago by late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, and which the World Bank was trying to rehabilitate. He said that power generation was key to boosting both social and business conditions in the vast central African nation.

World Bank experts believe that Inga could generate about 45 000 MW of the country's 100 000 MW of hydropower potential. This could power the homes of some 500-million homes across Southern Africa in a grid linking Congo with Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa.

Some 430-million-dollars of World Bank money is being ploughed into the Inga 1 and Inga 2 power plants.

Also making headlines:

A labour union negotiator says a strike at Eskom is not imminent.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research says that climate change presents an opportunity to move into new growth areas.
South African central bank Governor Tito Mboweni says price stability is important to help the poor.
And, electricity regulations are a 'positive step' towards Eskom's purchase deal for Mmamabula.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit engineeringnews.co.za.

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