Egypt and Ethiopia have started recuperating their relationship reaching an agreement to establish a joint investment technical committee. The two countries have been locked in a tense relationship lately over the volume and time of water fillings of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Sahar Nasr, Egypt`s minister of Investment & International Cooperation, and Fitsum Arega, commissioner of the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC), have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last Wednesday, January 17, 2018, during a two-day visit to Cairo by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.
“The committee is formed to follow up the business activities between the two countries,” Meles Alem, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) told Fortune, “And to build confidence among the two nations.”
Worqneh Gebeyehu (PhD), minister of Foreign Affairs, was also in Cairo during the visit, where a bilateral committee he co-chaired with his counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, was agreed to grow to heads of state level.
The investment committee to be established will have a group of businesses and investors from both sides, according to a statement issued by the Egyptian Investment & International Cooperation Ministry and published on Egypt Online, a State Information Service.
“A consortium of companies will establish an industrial complex in the near future [in Ethiopia],” tweeted Taye Atske-Selassie, Ethiopia`s ambassador to Egypt, on the next day the MoU was signed.
If materialized, these companies will join close to 60 Egyptian firms having a presence in Ethiopia with a total investment of 1.5 billion dollars. They engage in manufacturing of electric cables, meters, and transformers as well as pharmaceutical products. However, the trade balance between the due amounts to 150 million dollars favoring Egypt, which mainly imports meat and cereals from Ethiopia, while exporting pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.
“We agreed for the establishment of an Egyptian industrial zone in Ethiopia,” said Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, receiving Prime Minister Hailemariam. “We also agreed for cooperation in the fields of agricultural investment, animal resources, fish farming and health.”
Ethiopian authorities are expected to provide land, utility, and telecom services while Egyptians will work on the infrastructural development such as water supply and roads inside the park, according to Meles.
The two heads of state also had discussions on how to resume the stalled talks on the hydroelectric dam, GERD, which was the highlight of the visit. The negotiations came into life at a time when regional tension is high following Sudan`s closure of its borders with Eritrea after its leaders claimed a deployment of Egyptian contingent there. Egyptian authorities have denied this allegation in private conversations with Ethiopian authorities, sources close to the talks told Fortune.
Sudan stands with Ethiopia over the realization of the dam, according to its President, Omar Al-Bashir.
“We owe Ethiopians as they fully carried the burden of constructing the dam,” he told Worqneh who had traveled to Khartoum two weeks ago.
The dam is under construction with a total projected cost of 4.8 billion dollars since 2010 and officials say it currently reached 65pc completion. Planning to start water catchment this year, the dam will generate a 6,000MW of hydroelectric power when it becomes fully operational with no less 15 turbines.
It concerns Egyptian authorities that the start of filling the dam with water affects the volume of water reaches their border. They have been searching for ways to resume the tripartite talks stalled following the refusal of Ethiopia and Sudan to approve the draft inception report by the lead consultant, BRL Ingenerate, arguing that it was prepared without considering the baseline and the terms of reference (ToR). BRL made the inception report on hydrological simulation model and environmental as well as socio-economic impact assessment of the dam.
Ethiopian authorities were reassuring their counterparts that the dam will have no harm to Egypt.
“Ethiopia will never take any step that will significantly harm Egypt,” Hailemriam told his Egyptian counterpart.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister had visited Addis to attend the fourth consultation held among foreign ministers of both countries, where he tabled a request from his President for the exclusion of Sudan from the negotiations which was rejected by the Ethiopian authorities. Egypt also requested the intervening of the World Bank as “a neutral third party” to mediate the talks.
El-Sisi echoes this during his welcoming remarks of Prime Minister Hailemariam last week.
“Acknowledging the importance of the resumption of the technical path of the Renaissance Dam, Egypt promptly presented to Ethiopia and Sudan having the World Bank participate in the meetings to settle the technical disputes between the three countries,” he said.
The high-level meeting between the two presidents was concluded reaching an agreement of elevating a joint ministerial commission to the level of heads of state.
“They also reached a consensus of having the negotiations without the participation of a third party,” a diplomatic source told Fortune.
[addisfortune.net]