On 14-20 September 2014, H.E. Mr.Dewano Kedir Haji, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, Ato Genet Teshome Jirru, Director-General for Asia and Oceania Affairs, H.E. Mrs. Gennet Zewide Birru, Ambassador of Ethiopia to Thailand with residence in New Delhi, and their Ethiopian delegation paid a visit to Thailand by the invitation under the familiarization project of the Royal Thai Embassy in Cairo, accredited to Ethiopia. The visit was to promote the bilateral relations between Ethiopia and Thailand and to explore potentials facets for cooperation in the fields of foreign affairs, trade, investment, academic, healthcare, and sustainable development as well as to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Thailand and Ethiopia.

              The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and his delegation paid a courtesy called on the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, Mr. Don Pramudwinai, to discuss ways and means to enhance bilateral relations between the two countries. On this occasion, the Ethiopian Minister extended an invitation to the Thai Deputy Minister to pay an official visit to Ethiopia. During the visit, the Ethiopian delegation took site visit and met with Bangkok Hospital, Charoen Pokophand Foods Factory (CPF), AMATA Corporation Public Company, Chulalongkorn University, Thai Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade of Thailand, and Federation of Thai Industries to discuss cooperation on hospital business, healthcare, industrial estate, academic, trade and investment. The Ethiopian Minister invited Bangkok Hospital and AMATA Corporation to invest in Ethiopia and expressed his readiness to support the CPF Company in its feasibility study to invest there.

               The Ethiopian delegation also held discussion with Office of Board of Investment of Thailand and Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand on experiences of investment promotion of Thailand. In addition, the Ethiopian delegation gave a lecture on doing businesses and investment opportunities in Ethiopia to approximately 50 Thai representatives from public and private agencies during which the BOI informed of its plan to organize a trade and investment mission to Ethiopia in January 2015.

               Ethiopia is a landlocked country, but shares many ports with its neighboring Djibouti, with the total area of 1.22 square kilometers and approximately 90 million inhabitants. Ethiopia is politically stable and one of the fastest growing economies in the world, registering over 10% economic growth. Moreover, Ethiopia is the least corrupted country and low crime rate in Africa. The country has a large amount of cheap labor force and low price of electricity. Besides, many foreign diplomatic missions and international organizations as well as headquarter of African Union are situated in Addis Ababa, its capital. Bangkok and Addis Ababa are linked with direct flights 6 days a week. Ethiopia, therefore, is the important gateway to Africa and potential trade and investment opportunity for Thailand.