Ethiopia’s economy has felt the effects of the political turmoil in the past couple of years. As part of the ongoing reform, the country has opened its door to all political actors with diversified ideologies in its quest to realize an inclusive political culture. After a wave of political reforms, the government has now shifted its focus to the economy.
Obviously, after years of oppression, the opening up of the political space in Ethiopia has grabbed the attention of many. But, the economy also requires an equal attention as the country has been investing a lot of time and resources to achieving a successful economic transition.
Having one of the fastest economies in the world, the major economic challenges Ethiopia is facing include inflation, unemployment, and shortage of hard currency. Unemployment, in both urban and rural areas, remains high. Despite the GDP growth, the ability of the economy to create jobs has been low, compared to the demand for jobs.
Since recently, the government of Prime Minister Abiy has given due emphasis to the economy in general and job creation in particular. A high-level committee chaired by the Prime Minister has come online with the main aim of creating more jobs in the industry sector. The National Investment and Job Creation Steering Committee, which has the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, ministers, presidents of regional states and city administrations, and heads of two federal agencies as members, was officially launched on August 7, 2019. It aims to draw foreign direct investment and create three million jobs.
Having 27 members, the committee targets to create 1.1 million of the jobs in the industrial sector, one million in the agricultural sector, and the remaining 950,000 in the service sector.Focusing on creating “sustainable and decent jobs,” the Committee will be meeting every two months for updates while all of the member institutions will be sending reports to the two coordinators monthly.
This time the government aims at attracting foreign investment companies that come to the country with fresh capital and create sustainable jobs, according to Abiy.Then again, the country has also started to bear the fruits of its Industrial Parks (IPs). Since recently, the IPs that went operational have generated more than 90,000 jobs for Ethiopian citizens. The country has selected the labor intensive textile industry as a major engine of job creation in the IPs. When the construction of the remaining industrial parks is finalized, they would play a paramount role in reducing the unemployment rate.
Recently, the Federal Job Creation and Food Security Agency has also announced that it has created 1.5 million jobs in the previous budget year. Back in July, Prime Minister Abiy announced his plan to send some 50,000 Ethiopians to United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to him, the plan is geared to alleviate unemployment in the country.
“Ethiopia is planning short-term measures to reduce unemployment in Ethiopia and to cope with the increasing job demands of our people. One of these short-term programs is sending our skilled labor to foreign countries,” he said.
All in all, the government’s initiative to tackle unemployment is encouraging. As Ethiopia faces an ever-increasing unemployment, the government’s economic performance should mainly be evaluated based on the number of jobs created in the country.
The Ethiopian Herald, August 22/2019
