Today’s guest of the Ethiopian Herald is Stephan Auer, German Ambassador to Ethiopia. During his stay with The Ethiopian Herald, the Ambassador had discussed a range of bilateral and multilateral issues. Have a nice read!
A few years have elapsed since you came here as the ambassador of Germany. How do you measure your accomplishments so far in enhancing bilateral relations between the two countries?
Well, thank you very much. I arrived in August 2020. And from that time onwards, it was a difficult time; we had COVID; we had the war in North Ethiopia, we have the Russian-Ukraine war. So for me, it was very important to concentrate on our bilateral relations and to keep it up within the framework of what we can do to help people overcome these challenges.
What do I mean by this? For instance, despite all the challenges we faced, we have increased and even doubled our humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia, bringing it to 82.5 million USD. And we have also maintained our development cooperation. We have never suspended it, and we have refocused it more on the people.
So we have been trying to see how we can remain engaged here. And now we have the peace process, humanitarian access, and accountability coming up. I am working for full re-engagement and normalization of our bilateral relations to the old extent. We have had very good relations, and I’m sure that we’ll get back to that and the visits of the foreign minister and the Chancellor are the best signs of that.
So, having said that it is also very important, in that context, that we clarify reports of aid diversion. You may have heard about this if these reports are not clarified, and the humanitarian system is not reformed, we owe it to the German taxpayers to make sure that every dollar they donate is reaching those who are needy—the needy ones here in Ethiopia. So, I’m fighting for clarification and the reform of the humanitarian operating system here in Ethiopia.
It is to be recalled that the German chancellor and Foreign Minister have paid a visit to Ethiopia. What is your reflection on the implication of the two officials in the century-old ties between the two countries?
Indeed, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was in February, end of January 2023. And my chancellor came here on May 4, 2023. So this testifies to the importance Germany attaches to Ethiopia as an important partner, not only in the Horn of Africa but also worldwide. With this visit, they wanted to inquire about the peace process, which is ongoing in Ethiopia, encourage the Prime Minister and the conflicting parties to continue on the path of peace, and see how we can contribute to it.
But I wanted to underline Ethiopia’s firm stance on its way to implementing the Pretoria agreement, establishing this national dialogue, setting up the transitional justice mechanism on its own, and improving and guaranteeing humanitarian access.
So this is to demonstrate that Germany is committed to fully normalizing its relationship after the two years of conflict with the head here. And of course, despite the challenges we asked ourselves to face in Europe, Africa remains very high on our agenda, and in particular, Ethiopia remains very high on our agenda.
How would you assess German development projects in Ethiopia so far?
Ethiopia is one of or even the biggest, development endeavors we have worldwide when it comes to the area of development cooperation. We have several agencies working in that area, the KfW Development Bank, the GIZ, you surely know, but also DG. If I just take the GIZ, for instance, they have 1000 employees working here in this area, which demonstrates that, firstly, the people have been very much engaged.
When it comes to the different areas of cooperation, we were engaged in the fields of agriculture, health, education, the promotion of good governance, inclusive and peaceful societies. We think that if you need to have sustainable development, you need to have the three pillars of sustainable development which are economic, ecological, and societal development. This is more or less what we are trying to achieve and promote in Ethiopia with our Ethiopian partners.
Could you elaborate on the activities that GIZ is engaged in here in Ethiopia?
We have more than 80 projects here in Ethiopia, which demonstrates again that Germany is the second-biggest donor when it comes to development cooperation. Mostly we are involved in the agricultural field. We are also very engaged, for instance, in TVET. But as I said, these are not the only areas but we also promote the private sector as we think it is the best place to create jobs. This country desperately needs as does every other country.
You need to reform the private sector’s performance to be able to create the jobs the country needs and this is why GIZ is very much engaged in that area as well. But as I said if you want to promote the private sector, if you want to promote job creation, then you also need the people who fill the jobs. So, you have to have skilled workers. And this is why TVET is so important. And of course, because of the challenge we’re facing now with the high prices of fertilizer, fuel, and grain, we also want to contribute to increasing the productivity and production of the agricultural sector in Ethiopia.
So this is the very reason we are engaged in these areas. I just came back from a visit to Northern Ethiopia. And I was impressed by the willingness and commitment of the farmers, if you give them the means and the possibilities to plough their land, they would do amazing things. So, we should encourage them to do that.
And this is why we think it is very important to not only foster the private sector itself but also the regulations to see the framework of macroeconomics, the financing framework, and the regulations are conducive to attracting foreign investment.
As you may know, under the German Presidency of the G20, the Germans heavily promoted the 2017 Africa Compact. And that is exactly aimed at creating these positive frameworks to attract foreign and private investments, and I’m happy to say that Ethiopia is one of the 12 African countries with whom such a partnership was created. So there are a lot of things we are doing, not only bilaterally but also in the multilateral area.
How do you see the role of Ethiopia in regional integration?
Well, I think the role of Ethiopia is crucial not only for the Horn of Africa but also for Africa itself. Ethiopia is a very important political player in the Horn of Africa. It is a big country with a huge economy. And we hope that this peace process which has been more or less put on the right track in Pretoria will be implemented to such an extent to bring again peace and stability in this country. We want to have a strong and thriving Ethiopia so that you can again play the role of the anchor for stability and we are very much supporting this. The German government and the EU are very much supporting this important role of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is making a lot of contributions to the stability of the continent, not only through peacekeeping operations via sending peacekeepers but also by hosting the African Union which is promoting African integration. I’m encouraged to see that the IGAD has now set the summit recently. And by the fact that the Prime Minister of Ethiopia H.E. Abiy Ahmed (PhD) has now been part of the quartet of IGAD, trying to achieve peace in Sudan.
How do you think the two countries can enhance their cultural ties?
We have had excellent cultural ties for centuries. German researchers have contributed greatly to these ties which have now been expanded to include partnerships between universities. That is very imperative. But we also have other actors in the cultural field who are very active here in Ethiopia, for instance, the Goethe Institute, the German Embassy School of Addis Ababa,
the German Academic Exchange Show and the German Archaeological Institute which is engaged in excavation in the northern part of Ethiopia, all these are factors that can contribute to further promoting our cultural ties. The German embassies, along with their cultural attaché, are looking into areas we can promote our cooperation in the cultural field. I think culture is extremely important to foster a better understanding of each other.
Would you tell us about the involvement and contribution of German companies in Ethiopia’s economy?
Indeed, the German Embassy is very much promoting investment by German companies here in Ethiopia. You have to know that the German economy is structured in such a way that we have a lot of small and medium-sized enterprises which are the backbone of the German economy and create 85 to 90% of the jobs in Germany. And it is very important to attract them to Ethiopia so that they invest here.
The problem, if I may say so, for small and medium-sized enterprises is that they are quite risk-averse. So, if they lose an investment, this can be existential for small and medium-sized enterprises. So, what they need is a safe environment. If they want to invest in the country, they want to be safe and their investments are protected. So, what we would need is a conducive environment for them to invest. So, this is what we are doing. And we see that many companies have come here.
Some of them face challenges when it comes to this environment. They have some problems in connection with taxes, visas, and a shortage of foreign currency. These all need to be addressed to be able to attract more German companies. I always tell my Ethiopian friends and partners, Ethiopia is always in competition with other countries in Africa and worldwide. If you want to attract German, European, or foreign investments, then you have to be attractive. And you also need to protect their investment here.
How has Germany observed peace and development cooperation in East Africa? What is your country’s stance concerning Sudan’s internal conflict?
It’s a tragic development, what we’re seeing here—the death and suffering of Sudanese people—it’s terrible. And we’ve feared not only for Sudan but also for neighboring countries, which may have regional implications. But first of all, I want very much to commend Ethiopia for welcoming refugees coming from Sudan. This is a huge humanitarian gesture. Despite its challenges, Ethiopia has to welcome these refugees. This is something that I admire.
Having said that, when it comes to Sudan, we need an immediate ceasefire to enable humanitarian access, to enable all the problems and needs the country has, not only as a ceasefire but also something that leads to a political process, which then could lead to a transition process to reinstate that transition process so that we will have a civilian government at the end of the day.
I think that is crucial for the further development of that country. And we very much support the leading role in the coordinating role of the African Union president. And of course, as I already mentioned, the role of the quartet of the four heads of state and government of IGAD, who have been asked to mediate in the Sudan crisis. So, this is more or less our stance on Sudan.
Your country has been providing support to the displaced people who are sheltering in Ethiopia as refugees in many refugee camps. Could you further elaborate on the matter, please?
I’m happy to do that. Indeed, we see that it is a big burden to accept and welcome refugees. As I already said, they will come in. Ethiopia is accepting refugees. And we want to help Ethiopia in this welcoming work; we do this through return assistance. As I said, we doubled our humanitarian assistance to 82.5 million US dollars in 2022. And we are not only giving this assistance to the United Nations but also to nongovernmental organizations and other institutions that are active in the humanitarian field to be able to reach the needy and see what we can achieve for them.
What is the role played by your country in enhancing the quality of education, especially in equipping youth with vocational and technical skills?
Well, TVET, as they call it, Technical and Vocational training, has been one of the cornerstones of our development cooperation with Ethiopia. Since its inception 25 years ago or something like that, we have been working together with our Ethiopian friends on TVET. And that is being done in various sectors. We are providing financial and technical assistance, and we have been contributing to the establishment of the infrastructure of the schools which are providing vocational training. But at the same time, we’re also improving the quality of vocational training. We think that vocational training is crucial to addressing the needs of the labor market, and it doesn’t make sense to train people who are not employable in the labor market.
So, we need to qualify people according to the needs of the labor market. This is why the quality of vocational training is quite important. So what we are doing is trying to promote and see how we can devise programs that are exactly doing this, namely, to qualify those people who are needed by the labor market, to build up capacity, and to develop the skills to train the people to be able to exert this national vocational training in a way that can contribute to skilled workers here in Ethiopia.
And we also mentioned another program, which I find very interesting: the sustainable training and education program, you have, where we help diversify the digital diversity landscape here in Ethiopia. And the German universities of applied sciences have been requested as role models for the partnership they have with their Ethiopian counterparts.
And they contribute to also seeing to it that they can develop programs and curricula for them to be qualified, and afterwards, as graduate academics, it can work for businesses while they are employable and for our job of addressing the needs of Ethiopian companies. That is very important. This is one of the success stories of the German academic landscape’s planning to have these universities of Applied Sciences that contribute to training academics who are easily employed and are needed by German enterprises and companies.
So we are trying to have the same system here in Ethiopia, which not only, of course, contributes to the employability of the academics once they leave the Universities of applied sciences but also, through their training and their skills, contributes to the competitiveness of the Ethiopian companies.
Would you tell us about the trade exchange between the two countries? What kinds of items or products are involved in the trade exchange?
Indeed, the trade relations are good. But if I may say it’s not good enough, there’s a lot of potential in it.
Ethiopia has huge potential. Germany is the fourth-biggest economy worldwide and the third-biggest trading partner. So, I think we can expand our trade relations, and we are working on it. Germany imports mainly coffee; it’s one of the leading or even the biggest buyers of Ethiopian coffee. We very much like Ethiopian coffee but also textiles, and floricultural products. Ethiopia imports a lot of machinery, including pharmaceutical products, engines, aircraft, and vehicles.
And I think that there’s much more potential. And as I said, we’re organizing trade fairs. As you mentioned, we already had the Made in Germany, Africa trades fair in March of this year, where we had a lot of German exhibitors coming here from all over the world and see different areas and sectors to show what Germany has to offer and where we can enter into business partnerships. And this trade fair was very successful. We will have the next trade fair in March 2024.
So we are aiming for that date to have the second big trade fair. But this is not the only one; we are also having other trade fairs when it comes to environmental circular economy or agro-food, which we just opened a couple of weeks ago, here as well. So there are a lot of things we can do to promote our relations.
What is the role of your country in terms of promoting democracy in Ethiopia?
Well, I think democracy and the rule of law are fundamental for sustainable economic development. If you want to have prosperity and wealth in a sustainable long-term way, you need democracy, and you need people to support this process. And we are very encouraged by the opening of the political and economic arenas by the present government, led by Prime Minister Abiy. And we have been very supportive of two institutions that stand for democracy in this country.
One is the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, led by Commissioner Daniel Bekele, and the other is the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia. I’m very sad to hear that the Chair, Birtukan Mideksa, has just resigned for good reason. But I think these two institutions have achieved a lot. And we are supporting the further progress of these institutions in the areas they’re covering. So I think this is something that we think is crucial for the sustainable development of Ethiopia. And we’re happy to contribute to that.
Dear Ambassador, I have finished the questions I have for you for today. If you want to add any more points, please take a chance.
Thank you very much. I’m just saying that we hope that Ethiopia is now on a good path to peace and stability. The [peace agreement] in Pretoria was a very courageous step taken by the two sides. And we very much encourage Ethiopia on its way, because you have a huge potential to become the economic and political powerhouse again, not only in East Africa but in Africa. We need it to appear as an anchor of stability, not only in Africa but also worldwide.
Thank you very much.
It is my pleasure.
BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 1 JULY 2023
