India has already achieved the 2009 export target worth $500 million to Ethiopia, he added.

Singh said products manufactured by Indian companies could also be exported to India, and that the balance of trade between the two countries could become even.

Ethiopia's Minister of Trade and Industry Girma Birru, who was the chief guest, appreciated the Anmol group for choosing Ginchi to open the paper unit, describing it as one of the first meaningful investments in the area.

According to him, in addition to providing direct employment, the factory would also create hundreds of indirect jobs for people for collecting waste paper material.

The minister said Ethiopia required 70,000 tonnes of paper per year, and with the Ginchi factory expected to produce 15,000 tonnes annually, a substantial portion of the requirement would be manufactured locally.

This, Birru said, would result in saving precious foreign exchange.

Anmol managing director Arvind Sharma said his company had decided to invest in Ethiopia because of the whole-hearted support of the government.