Ethiopia, UAE to Raise $1 Bln Bilateral Trade Benchmark

Written by Makula Dunbar

Mar 19, 2014

The UAE and Ethiopia have held talks on joint investment projects in Ethiopia’s industry, agriculture, food processing, tourism, renewable energy and mining sectors.

The intensive talks conducted by Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, UAE Minister of Economy, during his current visit to Ethiopia, shed light on the two countries’ desire to raise the level of bilateral trade, amounting to about $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion), to higher levels in the coming years.

Al Mansouri started his official visit to Addis Ababa on 17th of this month, leading a high-level delegation including Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Saleh, Under-Secretary of the Foreign Trade Sector at the UAE Ministry of Economy along with about 55 people from government entities and both public and private sectors.

The visit aims to monitor the promising opportunities to diversify its investments in the light of the agreements and investment partnerships between the two countries in a number of important economic sectors.

He held series meetings with eight senior Ethiopian government officials, especially with President Mulatu Teshome, to discuss ways to promote economic and investment cooperation of trade exchange between the two countries. Al Mansouri yesterday met with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, Dr Tedros Adhanom, Minister of Foreign Affairs and State Minister of Finance and Economic Development of Ethiopia, Ahmad Shede.