By Adnan Hameed TWA ______ The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on Wednesday discussed potential areas to further promote people-to-people relations between the two countries, especially by exchanging delegations of youth leaders. The discussion to this end took place during a meeting between Dr. Jemal Beker Abdula, Special Envoy, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the FDR Ethiopia to Pakistan and Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan, Chairman of the Prime Minister of Pakistan’s Youth Programme.

Both sides discussed matters of mutual interest including bilateral collaboration to empower youth of both the countries, mainly by imparting trainings, education and skills in modern technologies. H.E. Ambassador Dr. Jemal Beker said both the countries have young population which needed to be equipped with modern technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and others to build the effective workforce which would eventually increase productivity for achieving faster economic growth. He said Ethiopia and Pakistan, both could learn from each other experiences and share best practices to empower the youth in both the countries.

The Ambassador informed the Chairman Youth Programme about the home-grown economic reforms 2.0 which was undertaken by the Government of the FDR Ethiopia following the success of its first phase that has corrected macroeconomic imbalances, increased Ethiopia’s productivity and attracted the foreign direct investment. There is a huge potential in Africa for the IT services, the Ambassador said, while urging the Pakistani entrepreneurs to participate in the Single Country Exhibition being held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2025. The Ambassador said Ethiopia has been playing key role in the Look Africa and Engage Africa policy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan especially by launching the Ethiopian Airlines operations in Karachi which has given a major boost to the people-to-people and business-to-business relations between the two countries. The Chairman of the Youth Programme acknowledged the Ethiopian Airlines’ role in connecting Pakistan with the African continent of more than 1.4 billion people. H.E. Rana Mashhood said he is deeply impressed by the socio-economic development in Ethiopia under the leadership of H.E. Dr. Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of the FDR Ethiopia. He said the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is looking forward to strengthen bilateral relations with the FDR Ethiopia, and would like to collaborate with Ethiopia for empowering youth of both the countries.