The Ethiopian embassy in Qatar will be holding the ‘Ethiopian Business Forum’ (EBF 2020) on February 3 at the Millennium Hotel in Doha.
Ambassador Samia Zekaria said the forum will be organised in collaboration with Qatari company KON, and is expected to gather leading businesses and Qatari investors during the one-day event.
Zekaria said EBF 2020 will be a bilateral business, investment, and trade forum between Qatar and Ethiopia. The event also aims to facilitate the exchange of ideas, experience, business potential, culture, and other relevant corporations.
According to the ambassador, the participants will be briefed on the business and investment opportunities available in Ethiopia. Zerkaria noted that the relationship of Qatar and Ethiopia is “growing steadily and fruitfully,” citing the forum’s role in helping deepen communications between business sectors of both sides.
She said Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing countries in the Horn of Africa, and has a population of more than 105mn (as of 2017). The embassy is conducting the forum with KON to create awareness and to attract foreign direct investments (FDI) into Ethiopia as part of the government’s business diplomacy initiative, she said.
Zekaria said a high-level delegation representing the Ethiopian public and private sectors will be at the forum to brief the participants about potential strategic partnerships in the following sectors: agriculture, agro-processing, manufacturing, mining, pharmaceuticals, and industrial, among others.
“We are very eager to bring businessmen to Ethiopia, particularly those from Qatar, because of the availability of a wide range of investment opportunities in various sectors of the economy,” she told Gulf Times in an interview yesterday.
“The government is attracting FDI into Ethiopia because this will also help generate a lot jobs, and help stimulate our export activities; we have a lot of commodities and goods for export,” she continued.
“I would like to invite the businessmen in Qatar to see and explore the investment opportunities available in Ethiopia. Currently, the plan is to create awareness in Qatar, but in the future, there may be initiatives to bring an Ethiopian trade delegation to Qatar for B2B meetings with their Qatari counterparts,” Zekaria said, adding that plans are being studied to institutionalise the forum and hold it on an annual basis
KON partner and chairperson Hissa al-Suwaidi said the company aims to contribute in Qatar’s economic development by bridging the gap between companies in Qatar and their international counterparts.
“We are a small company but we want to prove that it is possible to contribute not only in attracting FDI into Qatar, but to also to seek investment opportunities and forge different collaborations with other international partners. We hope that this would inspire other Qatari companies to do the same,” al-Suwaidi stressed.

Related Story