The Horn of Africa Initiative Finance Ministers and Senior Officials from Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, and Somalia are holding a two-day meeting, focusing on promoting economic integration and regional cooperation, Ethiopia's Ministry of Finance disclosed.
The meeting is aimed at reviewing the overall policy approach to ensure effective trade amongst the countries. Moreover, the meeting hopes to address the issue of financing identified critical economic corridors, prioritized infrastructural projects, and regulatory changes required. In this respect, the meeting "has been able to demonstrate the need to mobilize over $15 billion investment," according to the Ministry.
Eyob Tekalign (Ph.D.), Ethiopia's State Minister of Finance of Ethiopia, reaffirmed his country’s commitment to work towards better coordination among countries at the Horn of Africa. He also emphasized the need to prioritize collaboration on job creation for the working-age youth in the region and stressed the need to further develop infrastructure networks in transport, energy and digital sectors to bring about an effective and functional market in the Horn.
Taking into account, that this part of the world has suffered through years of conflict, the State Minister emphasized that much care should be taken so countries do not undermine the remarkable progress being made in terms of promoting peace and stability in the region which is critical in promoting regional integration. Furthermore, he explained the importance of addressing climate change and promoting resilience to reduce the region's vulnerability to shock.
“So much progress has been made since we have launched this initiative last year to take forward the collective desire of our countries to deepen regional economic integration and promote regional cooperation by leveraging the renewed political momentum in the Horn of Africa,” Dr. Eyob noted.
This Ministerial meeting was able to allow the ministers to update their plans for the outreach to financing partners and in ensuring implementation readiness of the Initiative, the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance stated, adding that the Ministers also discussed requirements for providing coordination support to the Initiative.
The Horn of Africa Initiative was launched last year in Washington D.C. by Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, and Somalia, during the World Bank Group / the International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meeting.
Source (Including Image): Ethiopia's Ministry of Finance (Facebook)
