India provides further funding for sugar dev’t projects

The Government of India provided further funding of 166.33 million USD to Ethiopia for sugar development projects.

According to a press release the Embassy of India sent to WIC, the funding will be through a line of credit (LOC) by the Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank).

The LOC agreement was signed in Addis Ababa on 27th January 2009 by Sufian Ahmed, Minister of Finance and Economic Development of FDRE. S.R. Rao, Executive Director of EXIM Bank in the presence of Ambassador of India, Gurjit Singh.

The Government of India had granted a 640 million USD line of credit to Ethiopia for sugar development projects over a period of five years. This was the second tranche of USD 166.33 million.

The agreement for the first tranche was signed in October 2007 in New Delhi and is under implementation.

The Government of India has strongly supported Ethiopia’s development goals by providing more than 700 million USD concessional lines of credit for rural electrification and the expansion of the sugar industry. The sugar industry is expected to generate nearly 100,000 new jobs, create infrastructure and provide greater momentum to Ethiopian exports of sugar and power, thus strengthening Ethiopia’s foreign exchange earning capacity, the release noted.