Representatives of Ethiopia and Uganda will be in Atlanta in the next few weeks promoting business opportunities encouraged by the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) that President Clinton signed into law last year.

          The Ethiopian delegation will be led by Kassahun Ayele, minister of trade and industry, and will include representatives of some 30 companies as well as half a dozen government officials. They will be here Friday, Jan. 19, and will meet with local companies at the Renaissance Hotel and Resorts near Hartsfield International Airport.

Kayihura Kale, who is an adviser to Uganda’s president and currently is enrolled in a training program at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, will speak at a dinner on Tuesday, Jan. 23, to be held the World Trade Center Atlanta downtown. Atlanta Women in International Trade (AWIT) and the Southern Center for International Studies (SCIS) are sponsoring the dinner.

During a telephone interview with GlobalFax last week, Col. Kale said that Uganda’s pro-business economic policies of the past decade have transformed the country into a regional business center and have attracted major investments by large companies such as Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. and Western Union.

He also said that AGOA favored opportunities in the food processing and textile sectors. In addition, he cited hydroelectric projects and the discovery of oil as encouraging economic development.

Ethiopian companies involved in banking and finance, computer assembly, information technology, leather production, mining and textiles, among others sectors, will be represented in that country’s delegation.

To learn more about the advantages of doing business in sub-Saharan Africa because of AGOA, go to www.agoa.gov

To learn more about the Ethiopian delegation, call Sheila Hortman of the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism at (404) 656-0504. To attend the dinner with Col. Kale, which costs $35 for AWIT members and $45 for non-members, call Charlotte A. Trainer at (678) 432-0803 or send an e-mail to awitrsvp@aol.com