Addis Ababa — : Ethiopia and Kazakhstan need to exploit many opportunities that exist between them by strengthening their cooperation in various fields, Former President Mulatu Teshome said.
The former president who earlier as Ethiopia's ambassador to Kazakhstan told ENA that Kazakhstan and Ethiopia have not yet mutually exploited the potentials they have.
"There are a lot of areas where Kazakhstan and Ethiopia can support each other, especially in areas of mining, industry, agriculture and others where Kazakhstan and Ethiopia can mutually benefit from each other through trade, investment, and tourism, among others."
According to him, Kazakh's are highly insisting that Ethiopia open at least cargo flight to one of Kazakhstan's capital (Astana or Almaty) so that it might be a trigger and push for future trade and investment connections between the countries.
It is also highly advised if Ethiopia, especially the Ethiopian Airlines make stopover at Almaty, which is very near to the western Chinese border, Mulatu stated, adding that this was a proposal from the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan and all other Kazakh officials, and the business community share the same view too.
So, the potential is there, but we really didn't yet exploit the potentials where Ethiopia can benefit from Kazakhstan and Kazakhstan can also benefit from Ethiopia, he underscored.
The former president said Kazakhstan's capital Astana is considered the center of gravity for international trade and investment. "(And) if Ethiopian coffee exporters at least focus on exporting coffee to Kazakhstan, the market is very huge. At the same time, tropical foods, especially avocado and other citrus foods are highly demanded."
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Kazakhstan is well known for its iron and steel products, all other mineral products, Mulatu noted, "but it is up to the business community to visit each other and to know who needs what from where."
He recommends that Ethiopian exporters at least start export with flowers and coffee to exploit from the enormous potential in the country.
Kazakhstan's Ambassador to Ethiopia, Barlybay Sadykov said on his part that his country attaches great importance to development acceleration with Ethiopia.
Even if the two countries established diplomatic relations 12 years ago, he added that their relationships are developing very dynamically.
Recently, a delegation of Ethiopian business people visited Kazakhstan and had productive meeting with their counterparts.
Ambassador Sadykov revealed that they have plans for establishing joint venture and promoting bilateral trade and economic cooperation.
"We have a lot of opportunities and great potentials for increasing our trade and cooperation, especially in the fields of petrochemical, mining, agriculture, metallurgy, science and technology and education. For that reason the Government of Kazakhstan proposes to establish intergovernmental commission on trade economic and investment cooperation," the ambassador added.
Political consultation has been underway to access the exiting cooperation and outline plan for future cooperation, according to Ambassador Sadykov.
He also said that he has high respect for the Ethiopian people, who are custodians of ancient rich history and culture as well as strong and kind people who despite all challenges are resilient and have effectively protected their territorial integrity.
