Russia should ratify the agreement with Ethiopia for the avoidance of double taxation and mutual protection of investments.
This was stated on Tuesday, at the opening of the first Russian-Ethiopian Investment and Business Forum, in Moscow, by Mikhail Margelov, who is Russian President’s special representative for African cooperation and head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs , .
"Among African countries, Ethiopia is close to Russia culturally, politically and economically. There is an important close contact between our churches, a successful military-technical cooperation. We have a solid foundation for meaningful political and business contacts," said M. Margelov. According to him, the Russia-Ethiopian relations have a positive outlook due to the mutual economic interests.
"However, there are number of areas to be completed. I mean legislation. The Russian side has not yet ratified the agreement on avoidance of double taxation, as well as an agreement on encouragement and mutual protection of investments. This means there is no guarantee for our economic structures. Believe that Russian authorities to speed up the solution of this problem," said Margelov.
Margelov also said that in Africa, the safety factor often determines the outcome of intent on cooperation.
"In this regard, I would particularly noted that Ethiopia has played an important role in achieving regional security and the fight against separatism. This is evidenced, for example, part of Ethiopia in the efforts of the international forces to resolve the Somali conflict. Note that we have similar positions on sensitive on Africa, and Ethiopia is often bear the burden of the political and military leadership" he stressed.
Margelov noted Russia’s cooperation with Ethiopia in arms, including military aviation. He disclosed that Russia will establish in Ethiopia a network of service centers for repair and maintenance of Russian military equipment. This and other areas of cooperation will be dealt with the representation of Rosoboronexport in the capital of Ethiopia.
"In conclusion, I note that after the unfortunate interruption of relations the 1990s. We have not only re-evaluated the potential of Russian-African relations, but go to the active use of this potential in the economy and politics. Russian-Ethiopian relations support this conclusion," Margelove summed it up .
[Repotted by on March 5, 2013. Original text in Russian – Google translation with some editing for clarity)
However, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry’s this week bulletin made no mention of the “service centers for repair and maintenance of Russian military equipment”.
The Ministry’s weekly bulletin, A Week in the Horn, summarized the forum and side-meetings of Ethiopian and Russian officials as follows:
The Ethio-Russia Investment Forum in Moscow
An Ethio-Russia Investment Forum has been held in Moscow this week attended by Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of Water and Energy as well as high-level officials of the Ethiopian Railway Corporation and the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation and representatives of more than 60 governmental and private businesses engaged in leather and hides, horticulture, floriculture and grain and the oilseed trade.
During the discussions representatives of more than 30 Russian businesses involved in investment in Ethiopia participated. The occasion helped to demonstrate Ethiopia’s sound macro-economic policies and underline the investment opportunities available in mining, electromechanical works, railway development, hydropower energy, construction, the production of large scale machinery and agro-processing.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Tedros noted that the Forum would help to further boost the historic ties between the two countries. Dr. Michael Margelov, the President’s envoy for Africa Cooperation, said Ethiopia was the closest African country to Russia in terms of culture, social and political relations, with links dating back to the time of the great poet, Alexander Pushkin.
While in Moscow, Dr. Tedros held talks with Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, on bilateral relations. The discussions focused largely on ways to increase the volume of trade between the two countries including the importance of signing agreements to facilitate trade and on the ratification of previous agreements by Moscow.
Other areas covered included scholarship opportunities in Russia to facilitate technology transfers to improve agricultural productivity and cooperation between Russia and Ethiopia in multi-lateral forums including the G-8.
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