ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PANA) – Ethiopia’s financial sector will miss out on the possible investments from American major financiers because of its lack of a domestic stock exchange market to help attract foreign capital, an investor said.

An American investment consultant, Jonathan Auerbach, said in Addis Ababa Thursday that Ethiopia’s lack of a stock market was making it difficult to direct Amer i can institutional investors to put funds in the country’s vibrant economy.

“You have got to make a decision on whether you need a capitalist or a socialist system,” Auerbach said, adding “Ethiopia is the only country in the world with a big population that does not have a stock-market… you need to have a stock market.”

Ethiopia does not have a stock market but the country launched the first commodities exchange late last year, allowing for coffee trade.

The American says Ethiopia’s vibrant banking industry will inspire confidence fr om global investors if the country has a system of tapping in foreign direct investments into its economy.

“Major banks would be drawn back into Ethiopian market. Ethiopia is the fifth largest economy in the sub-saharan Africa in terms of the Gross Domestic Product,” he said at a press conference.

“There is no transparent platform to allow people and companies to invest in Ethiopia,” Auerbach, who is on an 11-country tour of Africa, said, noting that his firm was prospecting for business opportunities in Africa.

The firm of investment advisers is seeking to put its clients’ funds in Africa’s most promising sectors such as agriculture, finance and the telecommunication companies.