United Arab Emirates to exhaustively invest in Ethiopia. Multi-billion dollar oil pipeline construction among key projects.

borkena
August 10,2018

Reem Ebrahim Al-Hashimi, United Arab Emirates’ Minister of State for International Cooperation, is on a visit to Ethiopia.

She delivered a message from UEA Crown prince to Prime minister Abiy Ahmed. She is also in the country to follow up with agreements of cooperation which were signed when the crown prince visited Ethiopia in mid-June this year.

HE PM Abiy met today HE Reem Al Hashimy, Minister of State for Int. Cooperation of #UAE who delivered the message of HH CP Mohammed bin Zayed. The two parties discussed updates on investment & other bilateral issues. #Ethiopia & #UAE agreed to further deepen the existing ties. pic.twitter.com/CoaTAEZdCp

— Fitsum Arega (@fitsumaregaa) August 10, 2018

Al-Hashimi held talks with prime minister Abiy Ahmed to discuss ways of implementing agreements in the areas of investment.

The United Arab Emirates wants to embark on investment activities in the areas of Real Estate and Resort construction, according to a report by Fana Broadcasting. UAE is also intending to invest in the agriculture sector as well.

“The United Arab Emirates wants to exhaustively use all investment opportunities in Ethiopia,” Al-Hashimi told reporters after her meeting with the prime minister.

Apart from that, UAE planning a multi-billion dollar oil pipeline construction from Assab, about nine hundred Kilometers east of Ethiopia’s capital, to Addis Ababa. Feasibility study for the project is expected to kick off rather sooner based on information from Ethiopian government sources.

UAE has a military base in Assab, which has been under the Eritrean government since 1991. Since Assab is currently under the government of Eritrea, construction of oil pipeline will certainly involve an agreement with Eritrea as well.

Ethiopia has been mostly using Djibouti port to import refined oil for the last two decades which proved to be expensive from the point of view of transportation which probably necessitated, among other things, railway project which was completed recently. In 2015, Ethiopia unveiled a plan to construct an oil pipeline from Djibouti to Addis Ababa only to cancel the project due to financial reasons according to report by the Ethiopian Reporter sometime in December 2017. The Djibouti-Addis project was to be delivered by Black Rhino Group at a cost of US $1.5 billion dollars.

Abiy Ahmed was awarded UAE’s highest order of medal along with Eritrean president Isayas Afeworki just days before he traveled to the United States to meet with Ethiopians last month.



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