Addis Ababa, February 27, 2020 (FBC) – Ethiopian Embassy in New Delhi, India in collaboration with the Federation of Madhya Pradesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry held a business forum last Tuesday.
The forum, which was conducted in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, focused on the potentials of investment, trade and tourism in Ethiopia.
In her opening remarks, Tizita Mulugeta, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia to India, thanked the Federation and its president Shri Dr Radha Sharan Goswami for organizing the forum and hosting her delegation in Bhopal.
She said the forum is a useful event to acquaint the business community of Madhya Pradesh with the opportunities and potentials of investing and doing business in Ethiopia.
Ambassador Tizita stated that Ethiopia’s unique position gives it a competitive advantage since it is located at a cross roads between Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Besides the geographical advantage, she explained in detail the endeavours the Government of Ethiopia making to create a favourable condition for international investors who are interested in investing in Ethiopia.
Ambassador Tizita added that the fact that there are more than five hundred Indian investors in Ethiopia shows that the overall environment of the country is favourable for Indian entrepreneurs and stated her strong belief that this in turn will attract more Madhya Pradesh investors to go and invest in Ethiopia.
Shri Dr Radha Sharan Goswami on his part thanked the Ethiopian Ambassador for organizing the forum and explained the potentials of the Madhya Pradesh State as a source of investment and trade.
He stated that in the Madhya Pradesh State, there are about 245 world class pharmaceutical industries of which thirty of them are already engaged in exporting their products to Ethiopia.
He further went on to explain the State has some of the country’s heavy industries like Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) a renowned electrical machinery manufacturer and Tata Leather, a subsidiary of Tata International Conglomerate and others.
He further elaborated that there are close to 300,000 small-scale industries in the state which created more than one million jobs.
He added that the experience can be shared to Ethiopia given the strong relationship both countries are enjoying.
A power point presentation was delivered to the participants of the forum about Ethiopia’s investment, trade and tourism potentials.
After the presentation a question and answer session followed in which the ambassador reacted to the questions raised by the participants of the forum.
At the end of the forum, a separate discussion was held with entrepreneurs who showed interest to explore the investment opportunities in Ethiopia.