Qatari funded kidney hospital will address health care gaps
ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia’s priority to economic diplomacy has been paying off in attracting huge flow of investment and economic finance from Gulf Arab countries and helping the two sides to explore the
immense market potentials for consumer and industrial products, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said.
Approached by The Ethiopian Herald, MoFA Middle East Affairs Director General Ambassador Shamebo Fitamo stated that the renewed approach to economic diplomacy has given utmost priority to capitalize on the Gulf State’s enormous capital in a view to ensuring economic progress and curbing extreme poverty and unemployment.
Ambassador Shamebo noted that Ethiopia’s economic cooperation and partnership with key Gulf States including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Kuwait have been registering remarkable progress during the past two years both in terms of capital outlays and areas of engagement.
Whilst a big UAE-based company, namely Eagle Hills, invested two billion USD in La Gare’s real estate project for residential and business purposes, many other Gulf flagship corporates are coming here with huge financial and technological calibers, he pointed out.
MoFA has been involved in facilitating conditions for Gulf companies to explore Ethiopia’s business opportunities and networking with local firms and it has been conducting several business exhibitions and forums with public and private stakeholders in G2G, G2B, and B2B modes.
The ambassador said that the annual trade volume between Ethiopia and the UAE has reached close to one billion USD in 2019 from 459.2 million USD in 2015. Emirati investment in Ethiopia has also been increasing from 335.7 million USD in 2014 to over 2.3 billion USD currently.
“Saudi Arabia’s investment and business have remained number one in Ethiopia compared to other Gulf Nations,” Shamebo said, adding that the annual trade volume and flow of investment between Ethiopia and the Kingdom as well as other Gulf States are also thriving time to time.
Concerning economic financing, the director general noted that Ethiopia has been working tirelessly to exploit Gulf States’ immense potential to development assistance and it has been engaged to encourage Gulf partners to finance different socio- economic development projects.
“As a result of Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed’s meticulous diplomatic efforts, the UAE Government provided one billion USD to be deposited directly in the National Bank of Ethiopia as a commercial loan and Saudi Arabia granted around half-a-billion USD loan as fixed time deposit for financing the economic sector.”
Similarly, Qatar granted 18 million USD to the construction of a specialized kidney treatment hospital in Addis Ababa, which will have the capacity of delivering service to 11,000 patients annually upon completion. Furthermore, the Government of Qatar provided building free of charge for the Ethiopian Community School in Doha.
The ambassador indicated that the construction of kidney specialized hospital showcasing the warm relations and cooperation Ethiopia and Qatar have enjoyed in recent years. The hospital is instrumental in providing service to kidney patients in Addis Ababa and environs who suffer from limited access to early diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, dialysis and transplantation.
Ethiopia’s diplomatic missions have been actively engaged to seek markets for country’s agricultural exports and promoting its wider investment opportunities whilst MoFA has been closely partnering with relevant stakeholders to set favorable business climate for Gulf companies, he noted.
The Ethiopian Herald April 7/2020
BY BILAL DERSO
