Turkish Investment in Ethiopia Continue to Increase: Ambassador

Addis Ababa April 25/2018 Turkish investment in Ethiopia is increasing as more companies interested in doing business in the Horn of African country, Turkish Ambassador to Ethiopia Fatih Ulusoy said. Ethiopia, the largest investment destination for Turkey in Africa, has attracted close to half of the latter’s investment in the continent. In an exclusive interview with ENA, Ambassador Ulusoy said, Turkish foreign direct investment in Ethiopia has continued to increase. Ethiopia has so far attracted over 2.5 billion USD of the total six billion USD Turkish foreign direct investments in Africa. The 150 companies engaged various economic sectors have employed a total of 30,000 Ethiopians. “Just a week ago we received a delegation from Turkey from different business sectors and they had a very good meeting with the officials of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce Sectoral Associations and they received a very good briefing from the Ethiopian Investment Commission as well,” the ambassador added. He pointed out that some members of the delegation are ‘seriously considering’ starting business in Ethiopia. In addition to increasing in amount, the Turkish companies are also diversifying the areas of investment. “We are witnessing a broader diversification of the sectors in Turkish investments. Beside textile, we are seeing new investments in construction materials, hygienic products, beverages, leather, cable production, furniture and more recently investments on footwear, Ambassador Ulusoy said. As the ties between the two countries is of long-age, the Ambassador expected to see more Turkish companies in Ethiopia in the years to come. “The relations between Turkey and Ethiopia dates back to the 16th century.  We have long historical relations; our diplomatic relation is more than 122 years old so we expect more and more investment from Turkey in the coming periods.” Besides encouraging its companies to invest in Ethiopia, Turkey is expected to tap Ethiopia’s potential in health tourism, as more Ethiopians travel abroad to get medical treatment. “I want to highlight one new area that we are focusing on and we are encouraging health tourism from Ethiopia to Turkey” he said. “Ethiopians have several health tourism destinations for health checkups. We encourage them to visit Turkey more and more for this purpose and they can combine their trips for checkups or medical treatments with touristic and cultural trips.” The Ambassador hopes that visits of well-known personalities between the two countries would boost ties in culture and tourism. He mentioned the recent visit of a Turkish film actor, in this regard. “We are also very happy just this week we had one of the actors in the Turkish TV series. He visited Ethiopia for three days and his name is Keremcem and had a very good reception.” Surprised by the warm reception, the Ambassador said “…we would like to see the continuation of visits from both sides from turkey to Ethiopia and from Ethiopia to Turkey so it’s going to be a very active year” as it would help to boot cultural ties. According to the Ethiopian Investment Commission, Turkish investment has continued to expand in amount and diversification of sectors. In 2016 and 2017 alone, 17 Turkish projects worth over 3.3 billion Birr have become operational. These investments are in the areas manufacturing of construction materials, machinery and other equipments, as well as real estate business.