US companies seek level playing field, transparency to invest in Ethiopia

As more American companies are coming to engage in various investment projects in Ethiopia they are demanding for level playing field and transparency.

Tanya L. Cole, senior foreign commercial service officer with the US Embassy, told The Reporter that there is a great interest coming from US companies to invest in Ethiopia. “The only thing we ask for is a level playing field and transparency; transparent and predictable ways of procurement and bidding process. We need transparency in financial evaluation. That is really important. If those things are not there, it would be very difficult for American companies to come to the table,” Cole said. 

As part of former US president Barack Obama’s initiation to promote bilateral trade in Africa, the US Foreign Commercial Office was opened at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa in 2014. Since then the foreign commercial office has been promoting bilateral trade relations between the US and Ethiopia. The office brings trade missions from the US. The office also facilitates opportunities for Ethiopian businesses to partake in trade exhibitions in the US.

Early this month 11 Ethiopian companies engaged in solar energy development projects left to the US to participate in a Solar Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Another 25 Ethiopian businesses also participated in a packaging trade fair in Chicago. Ethiopian businesspeople drawn from the hospitality and manufacturing sectors have visited green packaging technologies and met their US companies engaged in the production of high quality packaging materials.

“We are here to do business transaction. We have brought international buyers to find partners,” Cole told The Reporter. She said that her office is trying to create business opportunities for Ethiopian businesses in the US.

Read more at: The Reporter