Of late, a cornerstone for ‘Addis Tomorrow Special Economic Zone’ (ATSEZ) was laid in the presence of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD). The new project, Addis Tomorrow Special Economic Zone, which lies on 35 hectare plots of land and will be constructed in collaboration with a Chinese company named China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), is equivalent with building a new city in the city. It will also comprise huge malls, residential apartments, various offices, education and health institutions as well as wide recreational and water bodies and sport centers.
True, the PM launched the construction of the Addis Tomorrow Special Economic Zone in Addis Ababa, on 14August, 2024. Speaking on the occasion, Addis Ababa City Mayor, Adanech Abiebie announced that the project will be well underway. The Mayor said, “CCCC, which is major state-owned firm specializing in large infrastructure projects, is going to build this special economic zone that will cover 35 hectares. CCCC has worked on numerous international projects and plays a significant role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. It is a grand landmark that amounts to creating a new city within the city.”
The Mayor further elucidated that the special economic zone would provide the city with a majestic look, magnifies its capacity to compete at international level, helps become additional source of beauty for the city. Besides, the Zone would also be a source of a number of job opportunities for citizens, helps the city facilitate trade, can be colossal international business center and consists of infrastructure that can provide dwellers with a range of socioeconomic services.”
Wishing Ethiopia and its people a blessing from the Almighty God, the mayor underscored that the special economic zone will be completed within the shortest time possible and goes to operational to render feasible service.
Yes, Ethiopia launched economic reforms with a view to attracting foreign investment and technologies, promoting exports, and generating employment and spillovers to the local economy—one important mission of the country’s SEZs to test the new policies and new institutions for a market-oriented economy.
In a globalized world where competition for ways to find economic, social, entrepreneurial, trading and the like advantage over contenders has always been the cornerstone of driving ambition and growth trajectories within nations. A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is one of the most common vehicles to delivering a super-charge to the nation’s international trade performance.
Special economic zones can be driven by very different policy anchors – including some linked to the latest in innovation and industry trends, while others can be focused on a specialized geography, such as a local tourism industry.
As increasingly environmental and social protection and alignment with sustainable development goals are needed for zones, they require both a deep technical and financial expertise in all related sectors like environment, transport, industry, water and energy with the understanding of the economic, legal and financial context.
A SEZ is an area that is subject to different economic regulations than other regional states within Ethiopia, they bespoke economic regulations designed to be conducive to attract foreign direct investment (FDI).
According to the Mayor, SEZs help facilitate rapid economic growth by leveraging tax incentives to attract foreign investment; the undertaking often seeks to bring wider benefits, such as driving up the skills levels and sparking technological advancement within the nation.
She said, “The SEZ comes up with advanced infrastructure. It would typically come with a package of investment incentives. It is professionally managed by a dedicated operator. Then a government typically will introduce policy and legislation and regulations specifically to stimulate development within the zone in target sectors.”
It is well recognized that the SEZ can be a policy vehicle for the government to stimulate exports thereby bolstering economic growth of the country.
Ethiopia needs to draw important lessons from what it has seen in China, Singapore, and South Korea as these nations have had new types of advanced special economic zones, where governments can experiment with the frontiers of new product development, new supply chains. Such a bold move would help the city in particular and the country in general boosts economic progress and gain foreign earnings.
As to the mayor, the SEZ can be means for driving development and growth, indeed! YES, SEZ is particularly powerful tool for stimulating economic growth in the developing nations like ours, and would be a truly transformative scheme.
It is quite important to integrate methods of delivery, linking economic planning, site planning and a strong focus on the overall value proposition for the SEZ in question. Furthermore, special economic zone is intended to act as a tool to allow the government to identify the potential mix of resources that would encourage and catalyze the local and international investment community to locate in such zones.
The nation is expected to embark on strategic paths by which SEZs can be well reinvigorated and help the city as well as the country have the greatest benefit out of the long-term economic development and promote balanced development across the country in terms of economic growth, investment, infrastructure expansion and schemes for poverty alleviation.
As to her, the country needs to work in collaboration with development partners for the success of the project.
The effective development of SEZs, with long-term demand forecasts their likely success, of course. The clothing, textiles and apparel, manufacturing and agro-processing industries need to be examined in Ethiopia for their potential to support the country’s economic growth, given the competitive advantage that exists and interest from international investment, as well as the natural resources and geographic location of the nation. What is launched to construct a new city within the city is really a bold move to transform Addis Ababa in particular and Ethiopia in general.
True, the project would also help the capital generate significant employment opportunities in advanced, high-value industries that would be internationally competitive and boost the economic development by identifying the most relevant activities for the SEZ thereby augmenting the economic development in this east African icon, Ethiopia.
“The beginning of this SEZ would be instrumental in helping the capital as well as the nation add value to the national economy, map out the competitive advantages for local economy, among others,” the Mayor opined.
Unequivocally, industrial zones play a major role in employment creation in Ethiopia and absorption by development industrial parks and other sources of economy. Hence, policymakers, SEZ managers and developers, representatives of investment promotion agencies and other stakeholders have to attach due emphasis to these zones to economic diversification and fostering sustainable development in Ethiopia.
Since the country has developed need to make special economic zones compatible with the AfCFTA to truly boost intra-African trade and SEZs will need to provide adequate infrastructure and have a clear focus on one sector to support the process of African economic integration, Ethiopia had better pursue carrying out such an audacious tasks.
Yes, the proliferation of economic zones, industrial parks and other sources of socio-economic aspects would revolutionize the nation’s economy by opening new industrial development path. Instead of building up industrial capacities from scratch, the country can join existing supply chains and upgrade along with the economic zones.
Together with the numerous industrial clusters, the special economic zones in Ethiopia will have a significant contribution to gross domestic product, employment, exports, and attraction of foreign investment. The special economic zone has also played important role in bringing new technologies to the nation in adopting modern management practices.
As knowledge and technology are increasingly becoming the drivers for growth and competitiveness, Ethiopia should continue embarking on the existing industrial parks and the newly emerged special economic zones, like the one which is going to be operational in the years to come. The newly born special economic zones and industrial parks in Ethiopia need to be made more innovative and technology intensive so as to help the nation maintain competitive gain in the long run.
It was also stated that construction works got underway on a mixed-use development project, named ‘Addis Tomorrow’ Special Economic Zone. The Addis Ababa City Administration is developing the mixed-use development project in partnership with China’s CCCC Investment. The PM twittered, “We have initiated the construction of the Addis Tomorrow Economic Zone, which will showcase the future vision of our city. The project involves the construction of grand malls, residential apartments, multipurpose complexes, health and education facilities, grand water parks, and sports fields.”
BY MENGESHA AMARE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2024
