Ethiopia's Ambassador to China, Ambassador Seyoum Mesfin who is also accredited to Singapore, paid a working visit to the Republic of Singapore last week (December 2nd to 4th). The delegation included senior officials from the Ethiopian Airports Administration, the Ethiopian Civil Aviation and Ethiopian Airlines.

The delegation held discussions with officials in the Republic of Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Changi Airport Group, Changi Airport International, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Aviation Academy of Singapore.

Talks covered establishing an Ethio-Singapore Special Economy zone, cooperation in the field of multimodal logistics, a bilateral visa waiver agreement for diplomatic and service passports and cooperation in human resource development and capacity building, with especial reference to the civil aviation industry and technical and vocational training. The officials of Ethiopian Airlines, the Changi Airport group and other relevant bodies of the Republic of Singapore also discussed the prospect of a direct flight between Addis Ababa and Singapore.

Both sides expressed a desire to further expand and enhance the relations between the two countries, and Ambassador Seyoum noted that cooperation in aviation was an important venture opening a window of opportunity to further strengthen the partnership between the two countries. A joint government-business delegation from the Republic of Singapore paid a visit Ethiopia in September this year to assess the country's business environment.