India has extended the largest-ever line of credit of 640 million US dollar to Ethiopia for greenfield investment in three sugar factories in that geographically strategic country in the African continent, besides putting in place a slew of measures to boost bilateral trade relations.
Talking after returning from the fifth Ethio-India Joint Trade Committee meeting held in Addis Ababa on October 7, the Indian Minister of State for Commerce and Power, Mr Jairam Ramesh, said India is the second-largest foreign investor in the poor African nation as its outward investment commitment to Ethiopia is 3,5 billion dollar.
Of this 2 billion is in the agriculture and floriculture sectors. – Indian companies are very active in floriculture, leather and potash mining, he said, adding that areas such as power and information technology have also been identified for heightened cooperation.
Bilateral trade has reached 249 million dollar in 2007, with imports from India accounting for around 96 per cent of the total amount.
– Indian investors are engaged in 349 projects worth over 4 billion dollar, which are at different stages. It is estimated that the ongoing projects will create about 26.000 permanent and 121.000 casual jobs, Ethiopian Minister of State for Trade and Industry Ahmed Tusa said.
Currently, India has invested in sectors such as floriculture, infrastructure development, agriculture and mining.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
