The automobile giant of Germany Volkswagen is set to install assembly plant in Ethiopia, a German government official said.

“Volkswagen will start assembling cars in Ethiopia in the near future,” said Gerd Muller, German Development Cooperation Minister, who is in Addis Ababa since Thursday. He made the statement this afternoon at the meeting with Ethiopia’s Minister of Finance and Economic Cooperation Dr. Abraham Tekeste.



A letter of intent is signed by Dr. Abraham Tekeste and Dr. Gerd Müller to collaborate on multiple areas. The cooperation focuses on capacity development for Ethiopia’s effort of industrialization, including strengthening engineering technology applicable in multiple sectors, ranging from agriculture to manufacturing industries.

The government of German has been one of the major development partners of Ethiopia, especially in capacity building education through its different development agencies GIZ, which used to be called GTZ, among others.

Volkswagen, shortened to VW, is a German automaker founded on 28 May 1937 by the German Labour Front and headquartered in Wolfsburg. It is the flagship marque of the Volkswagen Group, the largest automaker by worldwide sales in 2016.

Minister Gerd Muller has also indicated that Deutsche Telekom of Germany is interested to buy shares in Ethiopia’s government monopoly Ethio Telecom.