The Embassy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) in Pakistan and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) on Thursday agreed to hold an “Ethiopia-Pakistan Business Forum’ in Karachi during the second week of May to boost bilateral trade by connecting business community of the two countries. The decision to this effect was taken during a meeting between Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the FDRE to Islamic Republic of Pakistan Jemal Beker Abdula and TDAP Chairman Zubair Motiwala. During the meeting, both the dignitaries discussed modalities for the forum wherein high-level official and business delegations from the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia will also take part for further cementing business-to-business relations between the two countries. Ambassador Jemal Beker said the forum would not only help business communities of both the countries to work out a comprehensive strategy for bolstering bilateral trade, but also enable them to establish strong linkages. He underlined the forum would also provide an opportunity to the business community of the two countries to highlight business, trade and investment opportunities in economic sectors of Ethiopia and Pakistan. The ambassador recalled that a big delegation of Pakistani businessmen had visited Ethiopia and impressed by the ongoing development in major economic sectors of Ethiopia including agriculture, agro processing, mining, technology transfer and tourism. Moreover, the chairman was informed by the ambassador that the Ethiopian Airlines would start its flight operations from Karachi to Addis Ababa and vice versa on May 9 to connect Pakistan with not only with Ethiopia, but also with entire Africa. The TDAP chairman also expressed strong interest in conducting the business forum which was crucial to strengthen business-to-business and people-to-people relations between the two countries. He said a large number of businessmen would participate in the Ethiopia-Pakistan business forum which was crucial to advance business-to-business relations. The chairman also agreed that the start of Ethiopian Airlines would create a conducive environment to promote business between both the countries.
