POLITICS

Finland Seeks to Heighten Bilateral Cooperation with Ethiopia


Addis Ababa: Finnish Ambassador to Ethiopia Sinikka Antila has expressed her country’s desire to consolidate bilateral cooperation with Ethiopia in various development sectors.

Speaking to ENA, Ambassador Antila also hailed Ethiopia’s ongoing massive corridor development project that intends to uplift the image of Addis Ababa.

According to Antila, Ethiopia and Finland enjoy 30 years of diplomatic relations and strong bilateral cooperation in various development spheres.

The ambassador stated that the two countries have a well established partnership particularly, in areas of development such as water supply and sanitation, education, agriculture and digitized land administration as well as in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).

She further reiterated Finland’s commitment in further fostering the existing bilateral cooperation with Ethiopia.

‘We have had very tight cooperation; big programs together and well established partnerships for a long time. In fact, we are celebrating this
year the 30th year of cooperation in water and sanitation, the ongoing flagship co-wash project here in Ethiopia,’ the ambassador underscored.

Ambassador Antila also pledged to support Ethiopia’s ongoing development endeavors to modernize the society and beautify the country.

Furthermore, the ambassador pointed out that Finland supports Ethiopia for its effort in promoting democracy and a nationwide consultation process, overseen by the Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission.

Mentioning Ethiopia’s circular economy that has been launched last week, the ambassador revealed that Finland is going to support this national circular economy through the African Development Bank (AfDB) circular economy fund.

Recall that Ethiopia has launched a National Circular Economy Roadmap to unleash the country’s full potential of the circular economy through creating an enabling environment.

Circular economy is a model of production and consumption that involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycli
ng existing materials and products as long as possible, it was learned.

Asked about the ongoing corridor development in the Ethiopian capital, the Finnish ambassador hailed the country for its massive corridor development project aimed at uplifting the image of Addis Ababa.

Antila hoped that the corridor development project will make Addis Ababa much more beautiful and pave the way to have a good public transportation system, as the capital is the seat of the African Union as well as various international organizations.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency