BHEL, ILFS to explore opportunities in Ethiopia

New Delhi, Jun 5: Different teams from Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (ILFS), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd and Tea Board will be visiting Ethiopia for exploring business opportunities in Africa's most populous country in the areas of road construction, hydel power and organic tea.

This was decided here at the India-Ethiopia Joint Trade Committee meeting which took place after a gap of four years. While the Indian side was led by Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh and Ethiopian Minister of State for Trade and Industries Ahmed Tusa.

Agreeing that the total trade volume between India and Ethiopia remained low at 170 million dollar, Mr Ramesh said the decision to step up trade had to be ''political and not economic''. Elaborating, the minister said the private sector industries faced a lot of problems while doing business with the African market. Thus, the government must promote trade and investment through the PSUs like MMTC Ltd, National Mineral Development Corporation and BHEL. The Export and Import Bank of India has extended a line of credit and the Ethiopians want it increased.

Ethiopia is a big exporter of raw hides and skins while the Indian leather industry requires large quantity of raw material. A trade delegation from the Council for Leather Industry will visit Ethiopia for sourcing the raw hides.

Likewise, MMTC and NMDC teams will go and explore possibilities of joint ventures for tieing up the sources of round diamonds for the gems and jewellery industry. ''Gems and jewellery industry is crucial for employment and we have to ensure that it continues to get rough diamonds'', Mr Ramesh told reporters after the meeting.

He said Ethiopia, along with a few other countries, could be dependable sources for rough diamond.

For training Ethiopians in the information technology, the private sector, NIIT is being roped. A NIIT team will visit the African nation to explore possibilities of opening IT training centres there.

Mr Ramesh said Ethiopia has been given one billion dollar from the African Development Bank and the World Bank for road construction and the Indian companies have been invited to participate in the business opportunites.

The possibilities exist in pulses trade as India meets 15 to 20 per cent of its pulses requirements by imports and Ethiopia is a big exporter of pulses.'' It is a big supplier of Rajma dal'', the minister said.

The Indian side was informed that there are many ministers in the Ethiopian Government who were educated in India. The Trade Minister Mr Tusa was educated in Haryana Agriculture University in Hissar.

UNI