The Ethiopia – Canada Business and Investment Forum is to be held in Toronto, Canada starting June 27th for three consecutive days.
An initiative of WAFA Marketing and Promotion PLC, the Ethiopian Embassy in Canada and Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry and MineAfrica, a Canadian entity that promotes trade with Africa, it engages players in the agro-industry, export of agricultural products, construction, mining, hospitality and tour and travel between the countries.
The delegation is expected to travel to Toronto, the entrepreneur capital of the G8 nation on Monday. According to the organizers, “the forum aims at enhancing the export of Ethiopian products to Canada, attract Canadian investors to invest in Ethiopia and facilitate ways of working with their Ethiopian counter parts in joint venture opportunities in a variety of industry sectors”.
The forum aims to focus on knowledge and technology transfer specifically as Ethiopia moves closer to an industrialized nation status.
With a Liberal Prime Minister at the helm of the Canadian government in Justin Trudeau, the focus to lift Africa from an aid receiving nation to one that is a hub for trade and a stable society has moved to high gear. Ethiopia has been visited by a slew of Canadian high level officials in the last year alone, including the since departed foreign minister, Stéphane Dion, Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan and Omar Alghabra, the Junior Minister, who met with Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn earlier this year.
The delegation is to be led by Yinager Dessie (PhD), Commissioner, National Planning Commission of Ethiopia and among the delegates are Adika PLC, Awad Mohammed, JERR PC-Manaye Kefyalew, Tamrin International Trading PLC- Kibrom G/Giorigis, Solomon Simachew Import Export- Solomon Simachew and Abraham Abebe General Exporter- Abraham Abebe, known businessman from Adama.
This is the third time the forum has been organized in Toronto and in Addis Ababa.