(Finance) – The Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, declared that in October “it could be the right occasion to definitively present our Mattei plan”. Speaking in Addis Ababa for the two day visit in Ethiopia, Meloni spoke of the government’s commitment to a series of initiatives concerning Africa”, for example, “the Italy-Africa intergovernmental summitwhich takes place every two years: the next one will be in the autumn”, hence the possibility that the Plan will be presented on that occasion. “In the meantime, we are working on it in cooperation with African countries because you cannot expect to know what the solutions are best” without talking to the directly involved, he added.
The Italian Prime Minister landed at Bole International Airport, welcomed by the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed Ali. After the military honors and the Honor Guard review, Meloni and the Ethiopian premier had a interview in an airport lounge. Also present was the ambassador of Italy, Agostino Palese. Also by delegation Edmund Cirielli, Deputy Foreign Minister. Meloni then went to the headquarters of the African Union where she met the president Moussa Faki Mahamat. The premier was welcomed by the permanent representative of Italy to the African Union, ambassador Alberto Bertoni.
Cooperation, stability of the Horn of Africa and migrants i themes at the center of the talks that see the premier also engaged in an Italy-Ethiopia-Somalia trilateral deal tomorrow morning. At 18 instead Meloni is expected at National Palace for the bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, which will be followed by a dinner of honour. An interview with the Somali president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, is also on the agenda in the evening.
Tomorrow at 10 local time, always at national palace, is scheduled fortrilateral meeting with Abiy and Mohamud. At the end, around 12, Meloni will visit the Italian state institute “Galileo Galilei”, the largest Italian school abroad with around 900 students.
Ethiopia is among the beneficiary countries of the flows decree 2022 and represents a junction for the flows that cross the eastern borders towards Sudan up to Libya and from there to Italy: in the country there are 823 thousand refugees And 4.2 million displaced. On the economic front instead the goal is to consolidate and increase the already significant relationships: trade reached 276 million euros (+17.7%) in 2022 with Italian exports equal to 180 million (+2%) and imports equal to 96 million (+65.4%). The main sectors in which Italian companies operate are infrastructure and transport, agricultural machinery and industrial vehicles, textiles, energy, telecommunications, agro-industry, mining.