Ethiopia is predominantly a young nation in terms of its demography. It is a country where up to three million young people annually join the working age range and hundreds of thousands higher learning graduates join its abundant human resource.
Though the country’s economic performance has still been among one of the fastest, its capacity to attract business and investment in flow is far below compared to the massive potential it has in store.Under such a dire situation, the reformist government led by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed has put jobs creation for millions of Ethiopians, including those graduating from higher learning institutions high on the agenda. By the end of the current Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2012 alone, some three million jobs will be created, according the plan announced by the government.
In line with this big national goal, the government has embarked on two fundamental initiatives that aim at creating an enabling business and investment environment for the private sector; and hence for the required jobs creation.The first national initiative launched by the Prime Minister himself last December is what is known as “Doing Business Initiative”. It was set to improve Ethiopia’s business and investment climate. In fact, it puts an ambitious plan of improving Ethiopia’s current ranking status from 159 to make it among the top 100 by the year 2021.
The logic behind is crystal clear. Creating conducive business and investment climate will certainly upsurge the business and investment in flow to the country, which will in turn lead to the creation of the much-sought-after abundant jobs in the country. Thus, the initiative, being an integral part of Ethiopia’s action plan for jobs creation, is expected to make Ethiopia a competitive place to start, run and upgrade businesses.
In the meantime, on August 7, 2019, the PM had yet to come up with another initiative. He launched the Investment and Jobs Creation National Committee. The steering committee, chaired by the Prime Minister himself, comprises of presidents of the nine regional states, mayors of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa city administrations and 10 pertinent federal ministries, among others.
The late initiative was meant to ensure implementation of plans to increase investments and job creation. It aims at unlocking the full potential of the private sector with the primary objectives of creating sustainable and decent jobs for citizens and putting the country into a vicious cycle of development.All in all, the two initiatives make a key milestone in facilitating business-friendly environment in which the private sector can play a critical role in the job creation schemes.
Amid such initiatives, it is good to learn that encouraging reactions are coming from the international community. Development partners are expressing and pledging supports to Ethiopia’s endeavors. The US based Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has put Ethiopia a priority in USA’s plan to support investment as part of its initiative to support developing countries.
It is also encouraging to get the testimony of Acting President and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation David Bohigian, who said he had the opportunity to visit Ethiopia “and learnt that the progress is exciting about the opportunities and the potential that the country has for economic growth and increased OPIC commitments.”
Given the implementation of the government’s efforts and the supports of development partners go very well, it will not be long before Ethiopia comes out of the current dire needs.
The Ethiopian Herald, August 21/2019
