At a meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the head of Ethiopia’s Trade, Industry and Urban Development Bureau, Mekuria Haile revealed that many African countries see India as a role model for economic development.

Mr Haile called upon India to share its knowledge and technology in many fields including IT, textiles and leather goods in order to help boost Ethiopia’s economy.

He asked India to participate in Ethiopia’s educational programmes as India has a talented Human Capital resource, commenting that the eight universities in Ethiopia could be increased to 15 with the help of India’s expertise.

Mr Haile added that Ethiopia intends setting up a textile park and believes India’s expertise in hand woven textiles would be very useful. Similarly, he pointed out that, although hides and skins already form a major part of Ethiopia’s export basket, India’s expertise and cooperation in minimising transportation costs could help to increase profits.

Joint secretary of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry P. Dash said it was unfortunate that, although the two countries had historic relations, trade volumes had remained static for the last few years. He said that the Ministry had started its ‘Focus Africa’ programme and that a Joint Trade Committee was scheduled to meet in June in New Delhi where all aspects of increasing bilateral trade volumes between the two countries would be discussed, including investment and the possibility of  joint ventures.