The Minister of Industry, Mekonnen Manyazewal said, the government will concentrate on improving the capacity of foreign trade investors both in terms of quality of exports and earnings in conference organized jointly with the Ministry, Ethiopian Development Research Institute and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Thursday.

On the half day consultative forum, the Minister said, enhancing capacity of domestic export producers is among the government’s priority areas and the government will further its incentives through coordinated support and promotion to raise quality of export produce and earnings.

The Japanese Ambassador in Ethiopia, Hiroyuki Kichino said, lack of ability to produce value-added goods; inadequate promotion and high costs of transportation are the main impediments hindering Ethiopian export trade. He also noted the importance of quality of export items to benefit from the global market and his country’s readiness to share its best practices in foreign trade.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency representative also indicated the value of promotion through participation in international trade fairs to access the export market.

According to the Ministry of Trade data, Ethiopia has earned over USD 3 billion in the previous Ethiopian budget year.

Source: ENA