Ethiopian, Sudanese youth sign agreement on mutual concerns

December 20, 2009 (GONDAR) – An executive committee members of the youth and students union from Sudan’s Gedarif state, which paid an official visit to Ethiopia’s Amhara region, signed bilateral agreement with their counterparts in Gondar town.

The pact signed based on various youth concerns is said to build multifaceted cooperation between Sudanese and Ethiopian youth.

The agreement between the two youth groups comes after Ethiopia’s ruling party Ethiopia People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and Sudan’s dominant National congress party last month signed cooperation agreement to further boost people to people relations which among embraces the youth as a key role player.

The accord between the youth will allow both sides to pay working visits to each other state over the coming years as part of a mechanism to share their experiences on social, economic and culture, said Kibrom Tekele Gonder town youth federation president.

Gedarif town Youth and Students’ Union Chairman, Omer Mussa, on his part said that his union will exert maximum efforts to broaden this important cooperation among the youth of the two neighbouring countries.

During its stay in Gonder town, the Sudanese youth group has visited historical and tourist attractions of the town.

As neighbours, the governments of Sudan and Ethiopia in recent years appear to have well realized the importance of mutual cooperation on various sectors, as part of their development strategy.

By easily looking into their ever growing multilateral cooperation and strong diplomatic ties, one can easily tell how much the two neighbouring governments are committed to a serious work to meet maximum benefits for the two brotherly people.

Currently, Ethiopia and Sudan have a number of cooperation agreements on road project, telecom, security, capacity building, electricity, and culture among others.

Trade exchange between the two countries is also growing year to year. Ethiopia imports 80 % of its oil demand from Sudan and in return exports agricultural products and livestock to Sudan.

However the volume of trade exchange and investment between the two countries is still below expectations and both need to work on this potential to further enhance the existing bilateral commercial and investment relations to maximize benefits of the two people.

(ST)