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Ethiopia
offers huge land for Saudis
to grow cereals |
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 ADDIS
ABEBA(August 9-10,2008)
- Saudi Arabia can look up to Ethiopia where huge tracts
of unutilized agricultural land are available for growing cereals,
according to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
A Saudi ministerial delegation, which visited Ethiopia to explore
the prospects of investing in agriculture, is impressed by the country's
huge potential and as a follow up sending a team of experts to conduct
specialized studies, said Meles who spoke in an exclusive interview
with Arab News on a variety of economic issues ranging from rising
oil prices and inflation to the country's bilateral trade relations
with Saudi Arabia.
He was quoted by the news agency as saying, "The Saudi delegation
studied the prospects of investing in agriculture in this country.
We told them we would be very eager to provide hundreds of thousands
of hectares of agricultural land for investment, particularly for
cereal production. There is a broad agreement and understanding and
this will be followed by visits by Saudi experts to conduct specific
studies for investment."
Explaining about the existing Saudi investments in the country the
premier said it to have been in manufacturing and hospitality sectors
adding that the country expects a sizeable increase in the Kingdom's
investment in agriculture as a result of its decision to invest in
cereals.
According to the prime minister, Saudi Arabia is one of our top three
trading partners of Ethiopia.
"Our trade volume is $1 billion, although much of the trade balance
is in favor of the Kingdom. The trade gap is about half a billion
dollars. We mostly import oil and petroleum products and export coffee,
meat and other agricultural products", he was cited as having
said.
Meles put the impact of rising oil prices as it has created a huge
pressure on the country's balance of payment and complicated the inflationary
issue.
"We are trying to tackle this problem by increasing our exports
so that we can pay for our increased import bill, and improving agricultural
production so that we can dampen our food prices."
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