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French Development Agency (AFD) Africa stated that France’s assistance in the ongoing economic reforms and other development agendas of Ethiopia will continue. AFD Africa’s Director Christian Yoka revealed that the Agency was supporting the economic reforms of the country which were being executed by the Government. He also noted that the officials from the Ministry of Finance held discussions with the Agency on the Government’s development priorities.

Bruno Le Maire, France’s Minister of Finance, is set to arrive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Monday for an official working visit.

Soufflet Group, a French company, laid a foundation at Bole-Lemi Industrial Park to build a malt house at a cost of €70 million.

Castel Winery is expected to bottle wine for export form its vineyard in Zeway early next year. The French company is the first foreign winery in Ethiopia after the socialist regime.

The French wine maker has installed 28, 430 hectolitre, Inox tankers for the production of its first bottles of wine according to Robel Seido, Sales and Marketing Manager at Castel.

The wines will be bottled over the next 3-6 months and will be available to the market shortly thereafter said Seido. The first wines to reach the market are expected to be white wine he added.

A delegation of representative of French and Djiboutian business visited Ethiopia last week. The delegation was led by Banque Pour Le Commerce et L’Industrie - Mer Rouge (BCIMR) in Djibouti and its French parent BRED Banque Populaire.

The delegation is made up of a diverse group of 10 members with backgrounds ranging from banking to aviation and insurance.

Company’s represented include a company dealing with medical products and health care, an insurance college and long time Canadian partner and the International Bank of Canada said Emmanuel Lemoigne Director General of BRED.