Bringing Vietnam-Ethiopia relations to a new stage

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali. (Photo: Ethiopian Prime Minister's Office)

This is the first visit to Vietnam by a senior Ethiopian leader since the two countries established diplomatic relations, and also the first high-level delegation exchange between the two countries in seven years.

Located in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia is a potential market with a large economy and population of about 130 million people, the second most populous country in Africa. In recent years, Ethiopia's economy has continuously grown at a high and relatively stable rate, considered a bright spot in economic development in Africa. Ethiopia is the country with the highest economic growth rate on the continent, reaching an average of 9% in the 2011-2019 period and more than 6% in the 2020-2024 period. In 2024, Ethiopia's economic growth will reach 8.2%.

Ethiopia is currently the largest economy in East Africa and the fifth largest in Africa. In the period 2021-2023, Ethiopia's total import-export turnover fluctuated between 18 and 21 billion USD. Ethiopia's main exports are coffee, gold, leather products, oilseeds; its main imports are food, oil and petroleum products, chemicals, machinery, vehicles, cereals, and textiles.

Ethiopia is in the early stages of opening up its market and equitizing state-owned enterprises, creating many opportunities for foreign businesses to participate in the process. Since 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali has implemented many strong reforms such as implementing the Self-Reliant Economic Reform Program, promoting privatization, attracting foreign investment, prioritizing the fields of telecommunications, agriculture, developing infrastructure for industrialization and urbanization, striving to become a middle-income country by 2025.

In the field of digital transformation, Ethiopia is implementing the national digital transformation strategy “Digital Ethiopia 2025”, with the goal of digitizing the economy by 2025. With Ethiopia’s ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), foreign businesses can take advantage of the country’s position and role as a regional trade hub to penetrate the East African market. As a member of many international and regional organizations and with a central location in the Horn of Africa, the gateway to the East African region, Ethiopia is home to the headquarters and regional representative offices of more than 90 international and regional organizations.

Vietnam's consistent policy is to always value and wish to continue promoting relations with African countries, including Ethiopia.

The official visit to Vietnam by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali and his wife takes place in the context of the traditional friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Ethiopia continuing to develop well. The two countries established diplomatic relations on February 23, 1976 and are looking forward to celebrating the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2026. Our Party has good relations with the Prosperity Party (also the ruling party) and the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (existing from 1988 to 2019) of Ethiopia. Senior leaders of the two Parties regularly visit and congratulate each other on the occasion of each side's Congress.

The two sides regularly support each other at multilateral forums and international organizations. Ethiopia recognized Vietnam's market economy in 2014. The two sides signed many cooperation agreements on culture, economy and trade. The two countries' two-way trade turnover in the past four years has remained at 10-15 million USD. In 2024, the bilateral turnover will reach 13.1 million USD, of which Vietnam's exports will reach 7.11 million USD.

Vietnam mainly exports machinery, spare parts, textile fibers, chemical products and mainly imports textile raw materials, footwear, and coffee of all kinds from Ethiopia. In the investment field, MK Group is a Vietnamese enterprise with a joint venture investment project in the field of smart card production in Ethiopia. By the end of October 2024, Ethiopia has an investment project (still in effect) in Vietnam with a total investment capital of 10,000 USD. Vietnam and Ethiopia are strengthening economic, trade, and investment cooperation, promoting cooperation in new potential fields such as food, seafood, pharmaceuticals, Halal products, textile products, telecommunications, digital transformation, etc.

Vietnam's welcoming of the Ethiopian Prime Minister aims to continue implementing the foreign policy of the 13th National Party Congress on independence, self-reliance, multilateralization, diversification, proactive and active international integration; implementing the Project "Developing relations between Vietnam and countries in the Middle East and Africa for the period 2016-2025" and the Project "Developing relations between Vietnam and the African Union for the period 2021-2025"; affirming Vietnam's consistent policy of always attaching importance to and wishing to continue promoting relations with countries in the African region, including Ethiopia.

On the basis of the good traditional friendship and potential for cooperation in many fields, the Ethiopian Prime Minister's visit will bring the bilateral relationship to a new stage of development, more effective and substantive, worthy of the potential of each country, for peace, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

Nhandan.vn

Source: https://nhandan.vn/dua-quan-he-viet-nam-ethiopia-sang-giai-doan-moi-post872473.html