Leaders of hundreds of Chinese and Ethiopian companies participated in the event held last Friday and organized by the Beijing Sub-Council of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the Beijing International Chamber of Commerce.
The forum was a favorable venue for the signing of memorandums of understanding between companies from both countries to improve their commercial relations, exchanging data and information, and organizing joint fairs and exhibitions in the future.
Ethiopia’s Minister of State for Finance for Economic Cooperation Semereta Sewasew stated that bilateral relations are based on the principles of mutual benefit, respect and trust, which greatly contributes to Ethiopia’s rapid economic growth. “Over the past two decades, Chinese companies have successfully implemented more than 70 large and medium-sized projects, including two railway projects, power substations and transmission lines and telecommunications modernization,” she stressed.
Sewasew recalled that Ethiopian-Chinese economic cooperation began in 1971, and mentioned the development of national mega projects with the support of China, including highways, airport terminals, and various manufacturing industries. The Chinese government also funded development initiatives mainly in the form of grants, in addition to helping green growth, food security, building hospitals and providing medical supplies, she added.
Regarding the above-mentioned, the director general of Middle East, Asia, and Pacific Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, Gebeyehu Ganga, expressed that China’s unwavering diplomatic commitment to collaborate with Ethiopia bore fruit through the China-Africa Cooperation Forum and the Belt and Road Initiative. He also highlighted that China is Ethiopia´s largest trading partner and the main source of foreign direct investment, representing almost 50 percent of all entry into the country for this concept.
The Minister Counselor of the Chinese Embassy, Yang Yihang, revealed that until last May, Chinese companies participated in more than two thousand local projects with a total investment of five billion dollars and created around 610 thousand employment opportunities. “In the first five months of this year, Chinese companies invested more than 200 million dollars in about 100 projects in Ethiopia, creating more than 18 thousand local jobs,” he concluded.
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