New tannery to open in Ethiopia with Chinese funding

02/11/2010
A Chinese tanning group, the Xinxiang Kuroda Mingliang Leather Compay, has announced that it will open a new tannery in Ethiopia on November 24.

The project has meant an investment of more than $65 million, with Xinxiang providing around $35 million of the capital and the rest coming from a special China-Africa Development Fund.

China’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Gu Xiaojie, told Bloomberg that the new tannery that the Chinese government’s interest in Africa extends beyond gaining access to the continent’s raw materials.