ADDIS ABABA, June 18 (Xinhua) -- An Ethiopian official has hailed the digital cooperation that her country forged with China as the East African country endeavors to reinvigorate its economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking exclusively to Xinhua on Thursday, Billene Seyoum, Spokeswoman for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, said with Ethiopia earlier this month having approved the country's first digital strategy, technological assistance from China would be welcomed.
"The Ethiopia Council of Ministers recently approved Ethiopia's first digital strategy. Interestingly, we're noticing a lot of services and processes are becoming digitized as a reaction to COVID-19. The prominence of technology has become much more relevant in this period," noted Seyoum.
She said Ethiopia's drive to create a digital economy, while giving urgency because of the COVID-19 pandemic is part of a wider economic strategy, in which China is welcome to participate.
"Part of Ethiopia's Home-Grown Economic Agenda particularly focuses on Information Communication Technology as a key component among industries that need to be developed. China's commitment to work in solidarity with Africa, particularly with Ethiopia in this area is commendable," said the PM spokeswoman.
Seyoum has pointed out that Ethiopia is currently working in partnership with the Chinese e-commerce businessman Jack Ma on anti-COVID-19 medical supplies, adding on a strong digital technology partnership.
"Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has recently formed an initiative with the Jack Ma foundation, with one of the primary purposes being to provide COVID-19 essential medical supplies to African countries," she said, adding that "the initiative plans to reverse the COVID-19 spread in the African continent."
In January, Ethiopia launched a technology-oriented single import and export platform, dubbed Ethiopian Electronic Single Window Project (eSW), to ease the country's overall import and export trading endeavor.
The East African country launched the eSW shortly after the Ethiopian government had partnered with the Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group, for the creation of Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), which is believed to be "a game-changer initiative" in the digital economy of Ethiopia.
The eWTP, which was proposed by Jack Ma back in 2016, envisages to set up an open platform for private enterprises and coordination among international organizations, governments and social groups which focus on the development of SMEs as well as trade.
It was included in the communique of the 2016 edition of the G20 Summit held in Hangzhou. Enditem
