Ethiopian PM heads for France to strengthen economic ties

ADDIS ABABA, April 13 (AFP) — Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is due in Paris on Thursday for his first-ever official visit to France, aimed at boosting languishing economic ties and trade now dominated by coffee exports.

Meles, the first Ethiopian government chief to travel to France on an official bilateral tour since the reign of former emperor Haile Selassie, wants to see Paris move up from 11th position as a trading partner, officials said.

“One of the main purposes of the visit will be to strengthen the economic relationship between the two countries, achieve more markets for Ethiopian goods in France and have more French investment in Ethiopia,” said Grum Abaye, an Ethiopian foreign ministry official.

Last year, trade between the two countries amounted to some 64.4 million dollars (50 million euros) compared to 200 million dollars (155 million euros) between the impoverished Horn of Africa nation and China.

Both sides would like to see those numbers improved.

“Trade between France and Ethiopia is quite limited and imbalanced because Ethiopia’s main export to France is coffee,” Stephane Gompertz, the French ambassador to Ethiopia, said this week.

“If we look at total investment, we need to do more,” he said.

In early January, the French hotel chain Accor signed a 17-million-dollar (13-million-euro) contract to construct two hotels in Addis Ababa, becoming the third largest French investor in Ethiopia behind oil giant Total and brewer Castel.

Meles is expected to meet with French President Jacques Chirac as well as Foreign Minister Michel Barnier and potential investors, officials said.

In a related matter, the Paris-based global press freedom watchdog Reporters without Borders (RSF) on Wednesday said it had asked Chirac to use his meeting with Meles to press the case of two Ethiopian journalists detained in Addis Ababa for more than a year without charges.

Particularly as Ethiopia heads into general elections next month, RSF said it was critical for Meles’ government to address the detentions of the Oromo reporters, who it said were arrested for a story they did about a protest at Addis Ababa University.

“Free, fair and peaceful elections will not be able to take place in Ethiopia as long as the case … has not been resolved in accordance with the law and the principles of justice and humanity,” it said in a letter to Chirac.