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Ethiopia’s Business with India touches US $ 83 mn
 

New Delhi, October 18, 2006

Ethiopian Minister of Trade and Industry Girma Biru in a meeting on his recent visit to India firmly articulated Ethiopia’s call for Indian investment in textiles, leather, agriculture processing, construction and small scale industries under its industrial development strategy.

As many as 184 private companies from India have already secured investment approvals in Ethiopia till May 2006 and the total quantum of approvals is around US$ 500 million. Many of these are already in operation or at the project implementation stage.

These companies have secured approvals in the fields of healthcare, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, engineering, plastics, consultancy, information communications technology, water management, textiles and hotels.

Trade with India has grown steadily and stands at $83 million in 2005-06, a rise of 27 percent over the previous year.

Business with Ethiopia the minister ensured would be unrestricted on the repatriation of profits, interest payments or personal income derived from approved projects for foreign investors with adequate exemption on import duty on plant, machinery, equipment and raw material.

Since the Ethiopian economy is predominantly agrarian, the government's strategy is to develop both agriculture and industry and change the economy to a modern, industrialized one with an emphasis on manufacturing and services and non-traditional items such as information technology and IT-Enable Services for which it is looking for an increased association with booming Indian economy.

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