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The Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectorial Associations (AACCSA) announced that it would launch construction work on the Addis-Africa International Trade Centre this year at a cost of 200 million birr. Speaking at a consultative meeting with government representatives at the Addis Ababa Hilton yesterday, AACCSA President Eyesus-Work Zafu said that the construction of the centre would, among others, promote trade and investment, enhance export trade, attract foreign direct investment, create a platform for technology transfer. Eyesus-Work said that the construction of the centre, in the vicinity of CMC Yeka Sub-city will also strengthen the cooperation and trade relations of Ethiopia and other African countries. The African Union has shown interest in assisting the construction with a conviction that it would serve as a platform to link Africa with the rest of the world, he added.
Addressing the International Forestry Forum in Russia, U.S. home builders offered to share American home building technology with their Russian hosts and encouraged them to boost exports of softwood lumber and other wood products to America.
"We support opening up competition in the U.S. lumber market because we know that it will be beneficial for those families in our country who want to buy homes," said Jerry Howard, executive vice president and CEO of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). "We also appreciate the benefit it will bring to our home builders, who are seeking a steady supply of affordably priced lumber."
Howard and NAHB Immediate Past President David Wilson, a home builder from Ketchum, Idaho, represented NAHB and the International Housing Association (IHA) at the conference.
Alabama 4-H will start construction this week on a $7 million Environmental Science Education Center on Lay Lake that takes its mission to heart right down to how the facility is built. The 17,500-square-foot, two-story project is seeking a gold certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design from the U.S. Green Building Council. The council recognizes projects where the construction methods, materials and design have a minimal impact on the environment and incorporates energy efficiencies and other practices. To get gold certification a design has to earn 39 points based on the council's criteria. The Alabama 4-H Environmental Science Education Center is designed to qualify for 45 points. It's a fitting approach given the building's mission to teach Alabama youth and educators about protecting and enhancing the environment.
Zimbabwe's Parks and Wildlife Management Authority is seeking the government's approval for its 460 million U.S. dollars grand investment deal with an American investor for the establishment of a tourist facility in Kariba, The Sunday Mail reported. The Zimbabwe Attorney-General's Office is believed to be currently evaluating the nature of the transaction. Also, the deal has to be sanctioned by other stakeholders such as the Zimbabwe Investment Center (ZIC), which has already given its blessings. Significant progress has been made in negotiations with the investor and the deal was certain to come to fruition, the newspaper said. The authority's finance director Thomas Meke confirmed this development and said that the American investor was prepared to partake in the venture, but the discussions were still sensitive at the moment.
In an era of celebrity TV chefs and obsession with the latest shade-grown fair-trade coffee, the Williams-Sonoma culinary retail chain might seem like just another pushy brand cleverly catering to our aspirational appetites. But, like other ubiquitous retailers such as the Gap and Starbucks, you can trace all those shiny copper pots and haute chef knives back to a lifestyle visionary with a single humble shop. In this case, 91-year-old Charles (Chuck) E. Williams is still around to tell the tale of opening a French cookware shop in Sonoma, Calif., in 1956 (his first location was a former hardware store). He had a simple idea: bring restaurant-level cookware, appliances and ingredients to the home chef for the first time in the United States. .
Joe and Megan Selkey of Westminster are interested in moving to the master-planned community of Reunion. They toured the community and model homes during the Parade of Homes event, running July 29 through September 4, and stopped by Berkeley Homes, a Colorado-based home builder, at Southlawn Park. "Berkeley's homes are beautiful and definitely at the top of our consideration list," Selkey said. "Berkeley was holding a promotion at the time so we decided to register, never thinking we'd actually win." The promotion encouraged homebuyers to register at Berkeley's model homes to win a Weber Genesis Platinum Gas Grill and $500 cash. "We rarely win anything so we were pleasantly surprised when a Berkeley Homes representative called us," Selkey said. "A full-sized Weber grill is certainly a wonderful upgrade from the tiny grill we have now and the $500 is an even better perk.
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