Ambassador Gennet Zewdie of India

Ambassador Gennet Zewdie
Monday, 30 May 2011

“The last thing I want to do before I leave office is to help facilitate and achieve the agreements the two countries have made” - Ambassador Gennet Zewdie


“The last thing I want to do before I leave office is to help facilitate and achieve the agreements the two countries have made,” Ambassador Gennet.The 2nd Africa-India Summit held this week in Addis has equally served as an evidently fitting platform for bilateral talks between Ethiopia and India, where Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had to say: “This was one of the most fruitful meetings I have ever had in my life” and where India pledged to offer USD 300 million for the renovation of the Ethiopia-Djibouti railways line. The bilateral meeting between the two countries marks the growing trade and business relationship between the Africa’s and Asia’s emerging economies, especially over the last few years. Gennet Zewide, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to India spoke to The Reporter’s Hayal Alemayehu about recent developments between the two countries.



For how long have you been serving as Ethiopia’s ambassador to India?



Ambassador Gennet: For over five years now.



Can you tell me by how much trade and investment between the two countries grew over the last five years?



About five years ago, the registered investment capital of licensed Indian companies in Ethiopia amounted to some USD 500 million. That figure has now risen to over USD 4.5 billion. In addition to that, the Indian investors are now being engaged in various sectors of the economy than it had been the case some five years ago when Indian investment projects were mainly in the flower and other agricultural sectors. Now they are being engaged in various fields in the manufacturing, agro processing, information technology (IT), service and other sectors, with big-name Indian companies being involved in such investment projects and more of them planning to come. The two countries have now made agreements to increase Indian investment in Ethiopia to USD 10 billion by 2015 and raise the over USD 600 million trade between them to USD one billion during the same period.



While the growing trade between the two countries is gathering momentum, it is largely in favor of India. Will there be a chance that Ethiopia’s exports to India would significantly grow and somehow narrow the imbalance in the future when we have much less to sell to India than import from it?



Yes. Trade between the two countries is not only going to grow but Ethiopia will be able to export more as more of those big Indian companies who are investing in Ethiopia in the agro processing and manufacturing export their products to India and somewhere else.



To what do you attribute the growing investment and trade between the two countries, especially over the last few years?



As India has long been a growing economy, they are looking for favorable markets in foreign countries. And Ethiopia, aside from being herself a growing economy, qualifies for that in many ways. Better incentives being provided to investors in Ethiopia compared to other markets and economies, market access India companies could secure by investing in Ethiopia including AGOA and COMESA, the security and peaceful situations in the country and commitment from government authorities to assist Indian investors here are the major elements accounting for the growing Indian investment projects here, with over 450 Indian companies currently operating in Ethiopia from a few several years ago.



With some Indian companies looking forward to get hold of up to 300,000 ha of land to produce food for export, some observers fear that that might bring about food insecurity in the country some time in the future. What is your take on that?



No.You should look at it from the overall Ethiopian economic policy or agricultural industrialization policy. I presume you are aware of what we are doing with the peasant land holdings. We have this extension program through which we are providing trainings and so on that enable the farmers produces to double or triple. That will allow us to become food self-sufficient. The government has put in place a policy that will help the country to become food self-sufficient in the coming two to three years. Let alone the Indian companies, the locals themselves are and will be exporting their products. By the way, the Indians who have taken land so far are going to produce high value products like palm oil, process it here and export the oil. Or they grow cotton, like one big Indian company, Spentex, is now doing here on 25,000 ha of land. This company is forced to grow this high value growth because there is not enough cotton harvest in the country for the textile plant the company plans to set up. We are encouraging them to engage in such agro-processing activities. And the land allotted for commercial farming is only three million hectares is peanuts compared the total arable land in the country.



Do Ethiopians who wanted to invest in India get the same treatment and privileges as Indian investors get here in Ethiopia?



Honestly, I haven’t come across any Ethiopian who wants to invest in India. But if they do, I am sure they will get the same treatment because there are many non-Indian investors in India who are treated in such a way. Why would Ethiopians be discriminated against if they are in the right sector and have all that it takes for the kind of investment they want to be engaged in?


The two countries have concluded various agreements of cooperation and trade. Does that include the avoidance of double-taxation between them which the India investors were relentlessly asking for?


Yes it does. We have been talking about it for the last three years. It is particularly good news for Indian investors in Ethiopia as the agreement relieves them from paying tax in India for their business and investment engagements here in Ethiopia.



You have been serving as Ethiopia’s Ambassador for the last five years and two months. What do you want to accomplish most before leaving the office?



The last thing I want to do before I leave the office is to help facilitate and achieve the agreements the two countries have entered into during the bilateral talks between them.

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