A wide range of issues were discussed at the third meeting of the Eastern Africa Association-Ethiopia Business Forum that took place at the Ethiopian Embassy in London on 19^th March 2004. Special guests were outgoing British Ambassador to Ethiopia H.E. Myles Wickstead and his incoming counterpart H.E. Bob Dewar who will begin his posting to Ethiopia in the coming weeks. 

Ethiopian Ambassador Fisseha Adugna highlighted the democratic processes that have taken place in Ethiopia. Ambassador Wickstead spoke of the glowing and strengthening relations between Britain and Ethiopia. He stressed that Ethiopia is a peaceful country, pointing out that he could travel extensively throughout Ethiopia and visited many places, which many of his predecessors were unable to do. He praised Ethiopia’s economic policy and its investment climate, and said that he welcomed the changes to the finance sector.

HE Wickstead has recently taken a posting back in London where he will head the Secretariat of the Commission for Africa. During the meeting he went on to praise Prime Minister Tony Blair’s choice of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi as one of the commissioners.

Ambassador Dewar praised Ambassador Fisseha’s work in London to encourage investment in Ethiopia and promised that he would do all in his power to help any businessmen who chose to invest in Ethiopia. He stressed that the private sector has a critical role to play as it is the private sector that has the final say in how liberalised a country is.

Questions were posed on a range of issues including land allocation and use and Ethiopia’s public relations. Ethiopia is “full of promise and yet few people know about it,” said Peter Heal of T.H. Watson. “The government needs to promote Ethiopia generally – the image has to change. Only then will tourist and investor numbers increase.”  Ambassador Fisseha responded, saying he recognised the problem before highlighting the Nech-Sar National Park in the South West as an example of the work done to promote investment in Ethiopia’s tourism industry. Africa Parks, the company run by Dutch investor Paul van Vlissingen which now supervises Nech-Sar, had managed parks in South Africa for many years but did not realise until relatively recently that Ethiopia had similar parks. Mr Heal commented that he could not understand why more people do not go to Ethiopia, “when Ethiopia has more to offer than other eastern Africa countries!”

The meeting continued with informal discussions over lunch.

Background Notes

1. The EAA-Ethiopia Business Forum was launched on Thursday 12^th June 2003 and was addressed by H.E. Mr Neway Gebre ab, Chief Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister.

2. Previous meetings have been addressed by the head of the Ethiopian Investment Authority and the Minister of Trade and Industry.

3. Peter Heal is the founder of T. H. Watson, a company that invests in tourism and environmental projects.

4. Paul van Vlissingen, a Dutch nature conservationist, is the founder of the African Parks company, which also manages four other parks on the African continent. They are Liuwa PLain and Sioma Ngwezi in Zambia; Majete in Malawi and Marakele in South Africa.

ENDS