Djibouti Kicks-off International Trade Fair

Djibouti December 04/2018 The Djibouti International Trade (DIF) aimed at creating common platform for regional and global partnership has kicked off in the Red Sea port city of Djibouti on Monday. The trade fair will focus on boosting up comprehensive regional cooperation to promote trade and investment among countries on the top of making the country a major tourist destination. In his opening remarks, Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh said his government is committed to create conducive environment for regional and global cooperation. He said that his government has taken several measures including improving policy framework, establishing free trade zones, and port developments that would help create conducive trade and investment environment in the country. The trade fair that is being held for the second time has attracted 310 exhibitors from the five continents. Ethiopian businesses engaged in manufacturing, agro-processing, engineering, logistics, and hospitality among others are among the companies that are taking part in the trade fair. An Ethio-Djibouti friendship day accompanied by business to business meetings between businesses of the two countries is part of the trade fair. The session is aimed at enhancing trade and investment ties between the two neighboring countries Land-locked Ethiopia with its fast-growing economy has conducted for years more than 90 percent of its import-export trade through the Port of Djibouti. This has enabled Djibouti to earn one billion USD per annum in revenues. Located at the strategic eastern most point of Africa and the Bab-el-Mandeb, Djibouti is becoming a global economy axis, which many powerful countries drawn to anchor in the tiny country of the Horn. Political and economic stability has also underpinned Djibouti’s attractiveness to foreign powers, which want to have a military base in the country, including the U.S., France, Japan, Italy, Turkey and most recently China. According to the President of the Djiboutian Chamber of Commerce, Youssouf Moussa Dawaleh, the 10-day trade fair will highlight the future of sustainable trade and investment cooperation in the Horn of Africa.