Selected Speeches Of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I

FOREIGN CAPITAL PARTICIPATION

.... In Our efforts to improve the life of Our people, We have constantly sought to attract private capital to Ethiopia for investment in both industrial and agricultural undertakings. Our efforts have not, unfortunately, met with the full measure of success which they warrant. But Our Empire's development cannot be delayed because private capital is scarce or unwilling to invest in Ethiopian enterprises, and We have been obliged to initiate ourselves in past years a number of projects which could equally well have been financed with private assistance. Today, however, fuller recognition is being accorded to the importance of Africa in the world's economic structure, and closer attention is being paid to the possibilities for private capital investment here. Despite past disappointments, Ethiopia continues to welcome private investment, and We are confident that it has a vital role to play in Our country's continuing growth.

But it must be remembered that investment in any under-developed country, be it Ethiopia or another, is in the nature of a partnership. We, seeking to attract capital, must recognize that the investor is entitled to a fair and reasonable profit, and we must be prepared to accord those reasonable concessions which are necessary to meet the needs, the desires and the fears of private investors. But, conversely, the investor must recognize that he has certain obligations to fulfil to the country in which he is investing. His investment must make a real contribution to the development of the economy of that country. He must recognize that he has obligations not only to the workers who labour for him, but, in a very broad and general sense, to the entire population of that country. The partner who places his own short-range ambitions ahead of the long-range interests of the partnership has embarked on a course which will ultimately result in the dissolution of the partnership itself....

November 2, 1960.

Electronic edition created and published online by members of the
Emperor Haile Sellassie First Theocracy Reign
Order of the Nyahbinghi

June 7, 2017