Turkish State Minister Zafer Çağlayan has urged Turkish businesspeople to consider Ethiopia as a gateway to African countries as well as called on Ethiopian businesspeople to use Turkey as a base to open up to markets in Europe and Asia.

Speaking at the opening of the Turkey-Ethiopia Trade and Investment Forum in Addis Ababa, Çağlayan said: “We have come here with a loan agreement in hand. The Turkish Eximbank will sign a $100 million loan agreement to support Turkish businesspeople investing in Ethiopia.”

Çağlayan said his visit aimed at developing relations further between Turkey and Ethiopia as well as boosting trade volume and encouraging Turkish and Ethiopian businesspeople to work together in third countries.

"Total trade of Turkey with whole African continent was $5 billion in 2003. This figure amounted to $17 billion in the past 7 years. Turkey's exports to Africa increased to between $9 billion and $10 billion in the recent years," he said.

" [Turkey’s] AYKA company in Ethiopia has the biggest textile factory in Africa," he said.

The Turkish minister said Turkey's prospective investments in Ethiopia would amount to some $1.4 billion, employing nearly 30,000 Ethiopian people.

Speaking at the meeting, Ethiopian Finance and Economic Development Minister Sufian Ahmed said relations between the two countries had made significant progress over the last seven years, adding that trade volume had increased after high level mutual contacts.

Source: hurriyetdailynews