A Malaysian Business Delegation visited Ethiopia for the first time. The visit was part of a ten day business trip including three African nations.
The delegation made up of representatives from seven Malaysian companies includes delegates from various sectors including household items, detergents, electronics and automotive batteries according to Aureen Jean Nonis, Director of Lifestyle Section-Africa with Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation.
The rubber and palm oil sectors were not represented by this trip because Malaysian companies are already engaged in Ethiopia which is a larger importer of palm oil from Malaysia.
The trade delegation aimed to explore business opportunities for a range of products and services as well as to create business networks and contacts.The representatives expect to take advantage for the ever increasing demand for imports in the emerging local markets by offering a variety of Malaysian products explained Aureen.
Malaysian products will need to become competitive with products from other Asian countries including China in terms of expense although they are amongst the best in the market in regards to quality he said.
The visit from the Malaysian delegation was seen as a new approach to enhance Malaysian trade relations with the emerging markets in Africa.
The trade volume between Ethiopia and Malaysia was 83.7 million US dollars in 2011 increasing 224% from just 4.6 million US dollars in 2002.
Source: Capital
