Our Staff Writer
20 July 2008
Addis Abeba — The total investment in Ethiopia by 351 Indian companies has become 1.8 billion USD as at April 2008, in a sign of marked surge in number and size of investment from the emerging economy.
According to the Embassy of India in Addis Ababa, this was revealed at the inaugural on July 16, 2008, of a liaison office for TATA International, a member of the Tata group, India's best known industrial group, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The embassy said a 3-member delegation form Tata International led by their president R. Balasubramaniam visited Ethiopia earlier this week.
According to the embassy, the delegation called on Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and had a meeting in the Ministry of Trade and Industry and with Ethiopian government and private sector representatives.
Established in 1962, Tata International has evolved from an export house into an international business company with a global turnover of USD 850 million in 2006-07, according to a statement from the Indian embassy.
Its business lines include leather, engineering and pharmaceutical products, said the statement adding besides' its trading house profile the company has stakes in mining, five star hotels, distributorships, trailer and railway wagon manufacturers and IT ventures.
Meanwhile, the embassy announced that, another Addis Ababa-based Indian company M/S Universal Metals & Minerals PLC won the bid to take over Akaki Metal Products and Ethiopian Iron & Steel Company on July 15, 2008 with an outlay of USD 30 million.
It said the company was planning to scale up the production of steel products specially corrugated sheets, pipes and the like and to expand its processing unit for scrap metals.
The embassy added that, during the 6th International Conference on the Ethiopian Economy organized by the Ethiopian Economic Association at UNECA, the Ambassador of India stated that in the last 3 years the surge of Indian FDI has risen from USD 40 million in 2005-06 to USD 153 million in 2006-07 and a further USD 706 million in 2007-08.
"India is now the 5th largest investor in Ethiopia though in 2007-08 investment from India was the largest among all countries," the Embassy said.
It said the ambassador also pointed out that in 2006 India gave the first Line of Credit (LOC) of USD 65 million to support the rural electrification program and another LOC of USD 640 million over a period of five years in 2007 for the development of the sugar sector, which were significant breakthroughs which also encouraged the private sector to invest in Ethiopia.
The embassy said that created a new stage of cooperation with high expectations and a desire to' met them-on both sides.
"The result of the India Africa Forum Summit held in April 2008 added a greater momentum since India has decided to enhance the provision of soft loans to Africa to USD 5.4 billion in a period of five years from 2008," said the statement in conclusion.
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