ADDIS ABABA- Minister of Finance Ahmed Shide and Ambassador of France to Ethiopia and Africa Union Frederic Bontem signed yesterday a 100-million Euro loan and grant agreements.
It was stated on the occasion that 85-million Euro is in concessional public policy loan while 15 million Euro is a technical assistance grant.
“The loan and grant agreements which we signed today are an indication of the French commitment in boosting partnership with the government of Ethiopia and complementing our government reform agenda,” said Minister Ahmed.
The agreement is a great input to attain a middle-income status by the year 2025 towards which the government of Ethiopia has been working aggressively, Ahmed said.
“I would like to express my belief that with the support of the government of France and other bilateral and multilateral donor partners, we will be able to successfully accomplish the ongoing reforms that surly lead to the realization of our vision,” Ahmed noted.
He also thanked, “I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to Ambassador Bontem, Regional Manager of the French Development Agency (AFD) for Development of Ethiopia Ignace Monkam- Daverat and their colleagues for their efforts to make the agreement signing possible to support the recent government agendas.”
Ambassador Bontem for his part said that the agreement is a milestone following the exchange visits of the leaders of the respective countries—a visit to Paris by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed in October 2018 and the ensuring visit of President Emanuel Macron to Addis in March this year.
The visits have shown the increasing relations between the two sides and the commitment of the leaders to strengthen the partnerships, according to him.
The French support to the current economic and social transitions in Ethiopia was one of the key requests made by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy during his visits, Ambassador Bontem recalled.
“The public policy loan and its global technical assistance program to be funded by AFD are the first answer of the French government in support of to the economic reforms,” he added.
The project phase is planned to be implemented between 2019 and 2021; and the public policy loan will be commentary to the World Bank funded Ethiopian Growth and Competitiveness Development Policy Financing.
The Ethiopian Herald June 7/2019
BY DIRRIBA TESHOME
