Rich Ethiopian Aroma in India
1 Jun 2014 7:12 PM GMT
India-Africa forum summit started in 2008 in New Delhi and was then held in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in 2011. How do your rate the success of the summit?
India Africa forum Summit has contributed very greatly to strengthen the relationship between the continent and the country. From the first summit of 2008 to the second summit of 2011 many projects have been implemented all over Africa. Many lines of credit (LOC) have been approved to almost all African countries.
Indian engagement through IT programmes/ ICC programmes have been helpful in building capacity in our institutions. Through the 2nd forum summit of 2011, many scholarships have been given to African countries for PHDC in agriculture, (which my country has taken part in). Many institutions have been formed. We are receiving technical training from
Barefoot (Indian NGO) in Solar Energy Technology.
Some of the institutions have been delivered as promised, others have been delayed. For example, Indian government promised textile cluster and food processing in Africa to AU. AU assigned this textile cluster to East Africa but due to change of leadership in EA and other factors, this project is in delay. But a lot has been
implemented for EA.
The LOC has also been increased from the first forum summit to the second one. Example: In the second summit Indian government promised infrastructural development support for regional connectivity between the port of Tadjourah in Djibouti and city of Asaita, Ethiopia through railway link. As we are a land locked country, connectivity to this port has revived our economy. We have received about $300 million for this project from India.
Before the 1st forum summit also, we received LOC to revamp our sugar industries. With the loan of 640 million dollars, we were able to rehabilitate two poorly functioning facilities at Wonji Shoa and Fincha, and set up a plant at Tendaho. Due to this, from a net importer of sugar we have become self sufficient. Now we are about to reach a level where we will export about $376 million worth of sugar.
India has also helped us in rural electrification, which really helped us to uplift our communities, our industries our infrastructure. When electricity reaches in a village – transformation happens. Life can be sustained through education, medical facilities etc.
So that is in a nutshell what has happened in the India Africa forum summit.
One thing that I want to emphasise about the summit is that in this forum summit India has three different engagement levels with Africa – 1. At the continent level, 2. Regional markets, 3. Bi-lateral level. This helps each country, the region as well as the continent to constructively use different modalities for effective implementation of projects. It a good beginning and we look forward to the next forum summit third one, this year.
Please tell us about the trade equations between India and Ethiopia.
The trade equations between the countries are always in favour of India for obvious reasons. We are an agrarian country. It’s only now that we are working to transform our economy from agriculture to industry.
We import lot of goods from India like iron, steel and metal products, chemicals, drugs and pharmaceuticals, Instruments and machinery, food items, paper and paper products, yarns and textiles, transport equipment etc.
What we export to India, are pulses, oil seeds, spices, leather, steel and semi-precious stones.
While few years ago our trade was approx. $100 MM or so, now in the last five years it has grown to $800 MM (annual export to Ethiopia is approx. 750 and import is close to 40). It has been a steady increase. Many Indian investors are coming to Ethiopia, in various sectors. Primary sectors are leather, textile, plastic manufacturing, agriculture,
floriculture, iron and steel.
What is the extent of Tourism exchange between the two countries?
Ethiopia is endowed with nature, we have many natural tourist attraction places, but more importantly ours is 3,000 years of civilisation! And so, Ethiopia has many historical places. In fact, our historical spots are more popular with the European tourists. Unfortunately, we don't have many tourists coming for natural places, even though we are one of the few African countries which has both nature as well has
history for tourism.
It is unfortunate that like even in India, African tourism is thought of as Kenyan safari, and also Tanzania…while we should have been there. We started earlier, we were very vibrant and our tourism was booming 30-40 years ago but unfortunately because of the military, we lost it all. We had 17 years of unfortunate time, the darkest period of our history. We are now reviving by building roads to such historical places, building airports, hotels and lodgings. However, approx. Ten thousand tourists visit Ethiopia annually. Today we are at a stage where India was 30 years ago. We are striving to come out of poverty. So, although Ethiopians are not coming to India for leisure but they are coming for medical tourism. They come to Fortis, Apollo, Max, and now Medanta. They also go to Chennai.
What is the number of Ethiopian
students coming to Indian universities?
Ethiopian government sends students on scholarship to India. Right now we have about 360 studying for PHD and masters sent by government.Close to 60 or more paid by Indian government scholarship programmes. There were more self sponsored students few years ago because at that time we did not have many higher educational institutions/universities. But now we have more universities.
However, Ethiopians come to attend ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation) programmes – Indian government’s programme for soft ware training.
How do you think Indian-Ethiopian cultural exchange/engagement can be deepened?
We share great ties at government level as well as Business to Business. But we have to work on people to people engagement. Many Ethiopians know about the Indian culture, esp. Indian food is very popular. In Addis Ababa, there is lot of Indian restaurants. How did it become popular? It is because Indians have come to Ethiopia since the 60’s, as teachers. We know them as our teachers. Â
In fact, our popular singer long time back dedicated a song to Indian women and how we should also learn to preserve our culture like them. Your embassy with Ethiopia is very dynamic. They often bring famous classical singers and dancers’ troupes and they show on the national theatres. However, when I first came here and young people asked me where I am from, when I mention Ethiopia – they ask whether it is in South Africa. When I meet elderly people and mention Ethiopia they say.. oh, Haile Selassie! Or, they would exclaim Marathon runners.
I feel we know about India because they came to us, because they are our teachers. But it is unfortunate that we haven’t done much so far to introduce Ethiopia to India. But, we have set up a cultural center here, it is a modest beginning. We now get our cultural troupes to visit India to show Ethiopian song and dance. In the cultural center, our students perform once a month.
We show Ethiopian films, Ethiopian coffee ceremony. We have Ethiopian
food and an art gallery that has
portraits of Ethiopians faces, alphabets, images of cultural places. So, that way we have tried to introduced Ethiopians to Indians. We also have signed an agreement by which ICCR will send people to Ethiopia to have a discussion about India, and similarly we will send people to India.
Indian-Ethiopian relationship goes way back to 2000 years ago. My govt. has now realising the imp of
cultural diplomacy. Ethiopia must have its own place like South Africa. It has started and we will reach there.
Can you give us an idea of the nature/ extent of trade/investment from China as compared to India, in Ethiopia?
 China is a new comer for Ethiopia. India was always a teacher. So, the image of India for Ethiopians is not associated with business relationships. I was taught by Indian teachers, my generation of people – people who are in higher posts today, they are almost all one way or another have been taught by Indian teachers, primary school teachers for me, secondary school for the next generation and younger ones like you are taught by Indians in the universities today. So, the image of India in Ethiopia is associated with ‘Teachers’, and you know what it means. It is beyond business. Of course, Ethiopia is also happy that Indians are coming for business. There are many investors and it is job creation. I don't think I should compare and will be able to compare. China is coming for business, infrastructure, lets not compare it. It has different dimensions.
There have been reports of some dissatisfaction due to certain Indian ventures in Ethiopia (Example: Karuturi’s agricultural ventures), please give us your take on such matters.
That is an aberration. The people of India are not cut from one stone, as the people of Ethiopia aren’t. When huge investments are involved, esp. when it is a new country, a fresh start – these things are bound to happen. You know there would be a bad deal here and there, but it doesn’t really change the main image. For us, Indians are there for education, capacity building, job creation, doing business.
What we like about Indian business men is that they don’t bring their own labours. That’s it, so job is ours. So, we engage with Indians in export business so that they bring foreign currency to our country. They bring jobs, they bring foreign currency what else do we want. Ups and downs keep
happening everywhere in the world. We should not focus on the few issues here and there. We have to look at the larger picture, that’s what I believe.
India Africa forum Summit has contributed very greatly to strengthen the relationship between the continent and the country. From the first summit of 2008 to the second summit of 2011 many projects have been implemented all over Africa. Many lines of credit (LOC) have been approved to almost all African countries.
Indian engagement through IT programmes/ ICC programmes have been helpful in building capacity in our institutions. Through the 2nd forum summit of 2011, many scholarships have been given to African countries for PHDC in agriculture, (which my country has taken part in). Many institutions have been formed. We are receiving technical training from
Barefoot (Indian NGO) in Solar Energy Technology.
Some of the institutions have been delivered as promised, others have been delayed. For example, Indian government promised textile cluster and food processing in Africa to AU. AU assigned this textile cluster to East Africa but due to change of leadership in EA and other factors, this project is in delay. But a lot has been
implemented for EA.
The LOC has also been increased from the first forum summit to the second one. Example: In the second summit Indian government promised infrastructural development support for regional connectivity between the port of Tadjourah in Djibouti and city of Asaita, Ethiopia through railway link. As we are a land locked country, connectivity to this port has revived our economy. We have received about $300 million for this project from India.
Before the 1st forum summit also, we received LOC to revamp our sugar industries. With the loan of 640 million dollars, we were able to rehabilitate two poorly functioning facilities at Wonji Shoa and Fincha, and set up a plant at Tendaho. Due to this, from a net importer of sugar we have become self sufficient. Now we are about to reach a level where we will export about $376 million worth of sugar.
India has also helped us in rural electrification, which really helped us to uplift our communities, our industries our infrastructure. When electricity reaches in a village – transformation happens. Life can be sustained through education, medical facilities etc.
So that is in a nutshell what has happened in the India Africa forum summit.
One thing that I want to emphasise about the summit is that in this forum summit India has three different engagement levels with Africa – 1. At the continent level, 2. Regional markets, 3. Bi-lateral level. This helps each country, the region as well as the continent to constructively use different modalities for effective implementation of projects. It a good beginning and we look forward to the next forum summit third one, this year.
Please tell us about the trade equations between India and Ethiopia.
The trade equations between the countries are always in favour of India for obvious reasons. We are an agrarian country. It’s only now that we are working to transform our economy from agriculture to industry.
We import lot of goods from India like iron, steel and metal products, chemicals, drugs and pharmaceuticals, Instruments and machinery, food items, paper and paper products, yarns and textiles, transport equipment etc.
What we export to India, are pulses, oil seeds, spices, leather, steel and semi-precious stones.
While few years ago our trade was approx. $100 MM or so, now in the last five years it has grown to $800 MM (annual export to Ethiopia is approx. 750 and import is close to 40). It has been a steady increase. Many Indian investors are coming to Ethiopia, in various sectors. Primary sectors are leather, textile, plastic manufacturing, agriculture,
floriculture, iron and steel.
What is the extent of Tourism exchange between the two countries?
Ethiopia is endowed with nature, we have many natural tourist attraction places, but more importantly ours is 3,000 years of civilisation! And so, Ethiopia has many historical places. In fact, our historical spots are more popular with the European tourists. Unfortunately, we don't have many tourists coming for natural places, even though we are one of the few African countries which has both nature as well has
history for tourism.
It is unfortunate that like even in India, African tourism is thought of as Kenyan safari, and also Tanzania…while we should have been there. We started earlier, we were very vibrant and our tourism was booming 30-40 years ago but unfortunately because of the military, we lost it all. We had 17 years of unfortunate time, the darkest period of our history. We are now reviving by building roads to such historical places, building airports, hotels and lodgings. However, approx. Ten thousand tourists visit Ethiopia annually. Today we are at a stage where India was 30 years ago. We are striving to come out of poverty. So, although Ethiopians are not coming to India for leisure but they are coming for medical tourism. They come to Fortis, Apollo, Max, and now Medanta. They also go to Chennai.
What is the number of Ethiopian
students coming to Indian universities?
Ethiopian government sends students on scholarship to India. Right now we have about 360 studying for PHD and masters sent by government.Close to 60 or more paid by Indian government scholarship programmes. There were more self sponsored students few years ago because at that time we did not have many higher educational institutions/universities. But now we have more universities.
However, Ethiopians come to attend ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation) programmes – Indian government’s programme for soft ware training.
How do you think Indian-Ethiopian cultural exchange/engagement can be deepened?
We share great ties at government level as well as Business to Business. But we have to work on people to people engagement. Many Ethiopians know about the Indian culture, esp. Indian food is very popular. In Addis Ababa, there is lot of Indian restaurants. How did it become popular? It is because Indians have come to Ethiopia since the 60’s, as teachers. We know them as our teachers. Â
In fact, our popular singer long time back dedicated a song to Indian women and how we should also learn to preserve our culture like them. Your embassy with Ethiopia is very dynamic. They often bring famous classical singers and dancers’ troupes and they show on the national theatres. However, when I first came here and young people asked me where I am from, when I mention Ethiopia – they ask whether it is in South Africa. When I meet elderly people and mention Ethiopia they say.. oh, Haile Selassie! Or, they would exclaim Marathon runners.
I feel we know about India because they came to us, because they are our teachers. But it is unfortunate that we haven’t done much so far to introduce Ethiopia to India. But, we have set up a cultural center here, it is a modest beginning. We now get our cultural troupes to visit India to show Ethiopian song and dance. In the cultural center, our students perform once a month.
We show Ethiopian films, Ethiopian coffee ceremony. We have Ethiopian
food and an art gallery that has
portraits of Ethiopians faces, alphabets, images of cultural places. So, that way we have tried to introduced Ethiopians to Indians. We also have signed an agreement by which ICCR will send people to Ethiopia to have a discussion about India, and similarly we will send people to India.
Indian-Ethiopian relationship goes way back to 2000 years ago. My govt. has now realising the imp of
cultural diplomacy. Ethiopia must have its own place like South Africa. It has started and we will reach there.
Can you give us an idea of the nature/ extent of trade/investment from China as compared to India, in Ethiopia?
 China is a new comer for Ethiopia. India was always a teacher. So, the image of India for Ethiopians is not associated with business relationships. I was taught by Indian teachers, my generation of people – people who are in higher posts today, they are almost all one way or another have been taught by Indian teachers, primary school teachers for me, secondary school for the next generation and younger ones like you are taught by Indians in the universities today. So, the image of India in Ethiopia is associated with ‘Teachers’, and you know what it means. It is beyond business. Of course, Ethiopia is also happy that Indians are coming for business. There are many investors and it is job creation. I don't think I should compare and will be able to compare. China is coming for business, infrastructure, lets not compare it. It has different dimensions.
There have been reports of some dissatisfaction due to certain Indian ventures in Ethiopia (Example: Karuturi’s agricultural ventures), please give us your take on such matters.
That is an aberration. The people of India are not cut from one stone, as the people of Ethiopia aren’t. When huge investments are involved, esp. when it is a new country, a fresh start – these things are bound to happen. You know there would be a bad deal here and there, but it doesn’t really change the main image. For us, Indians are there for education, capacity building, job creation, doing business.
What we like about Indian business men is that they don’t bring their own labours. That’s it, so job is ours. So, we engage with Indians in export business so that they bring foreign currency to our country. They bring jobs, they bring foreign currency what else do we want. Ups and downs keep
happening everywhere in the world. We should not focus on the few issues here and there. We have to look at the larger picture, that’s what I believe.
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