ADDIS ABABA, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan President Paul Kagame landed in Ethiopia on Friday morning for a three-day official state visit to Ethiopia expected to focus on regional and continental issues.
Kagame is the first foreign leader to make an official state visit to Ethiopia, after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was sworn in as Ethiopia's Prime Minister on April 2.
Speaking to local and foreign journalists, Meles Alem, Spokesperson of Ethiopia Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), said Kagame is expected to discuss equitable use of Nile waters and AU reform among several items of discussion.
"With Kagame being the current chairperson of the AU and with both Ethiopia and Rwanda having progressive governments, a strategic partnership to reform the 55-member states continental body will be a major item of bilateral discussions," said Alem.
Alem also said equitable and fair use of Nile river water resources will also be a matter of discussion, with both countries being part of Nile river basin.
Ethiopia is building Africa's largest hydro dam, the 6,450 Mega Watts Great Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile river which it hopes to use for internal usage and export revenue by selling energy to several other African countries including Rwanda.
Kagame and Ahmed are expected to visit later Friday Ethiopia's flagship Hawassa Industrial Park, which Ethiopian government sees as crucial to meet its vision of making Ethiopia a light industry hub in Africa and middle-income economy 2025.
Built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), the Hawassa industrial park, located in Ethiopia's southern city of Hawassa, was completed in a record time of nine months and commissioned in July 2016.
The Ethiopian government has previously disclosed its plan to generate close to 1 billion U.S. dollars in annual revenue from the park once it starts operations at its full potential.
