Ethiopian delegates call for expanded international cooperation and targeted development support during the 73rd Session of the UNCTAD Trade and Development Board in Geneva
By Staff Writer
(Nairobi, Kenya) — Ethiopian delegates called for expanded international cooperation and targeted development support during the General Debate of the 73rd Session of the UNCTAD Trade and Development Board in Geneva, emphasizing the need to translate national economic reforms into productive investment, structural transformation, and inclusive growth.
Representing the Ethiopian delegation, Ambassador Negus Kebede reaffirmed the nation’s commitment to multilateralism and urged international partners to maintain a predictable, open, and rules-based global economic system. Ambassador Negus welcomed the Geneva Consensus for a Just and Sustainable Economic Order, advocating for its core principles to yield concrete technical and financial assistance for Least Developed Countries.
Highlighting domestic policy developments, Ambassador Negus outlined progress under Ethiopia’s Home-Grown Economic Reform Agenda. He pointed to foundational structural shifts across state-owned enterprises, telecommunications, financial services, capital market development, and foreign exchange systems, complemented by strategic investments in manufacturing, agriculture, infrastructure, logistics, and digital transformation.
The delegation emphasized that foreign and domestic investments must drive local value addition, domestic technology transfer, export diversification, and sustainable employment. Reaffirming commitment to regional and global trade framework integration, the delegation highlighted the strategic role of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) alongside progress on Ethiopia’s World Trade Organization (WTO) accession process, which has reached an advanced stage following updated market-access offers in financial and telecommunications sectors.
Addressing technological modernization, the delegation presented the Digital Ethiopia 2030 strategy as a guiding framework to expand national digital infrastructure, build local technical capacity, and foster information and communication technology exports.
Concluding the address, the Ethiopian mission urged international partners to expand access to predictable and affordable development finance, widen fiscal space for developing economies, and strengthen support for climate resilience. Ethiopia outlined four priority areas for continued collaboration with UNCTAD: structural transformation and export diversification, investment policy facilitation, global trade integration, and digital trade development.
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