ADDIS ABABA – Ministry of Mines and Petroleum announced that it has been creating conducive environment to attract investment opportunities into the sector.
The Minister, Dr. Samuel Urkato, said that mining is one of the main focus areas of the government to transition Ethiopia into a middle income country by 2030, as there is an effort to increase the sector’s contribution to GDP to 10 percent by 2030. To this end, Ethiopia is working to unleash the potential of the sector by improving the sector’s investment frameworks, and drafting a national mining policy.
According to him, the government has cut corporate income tax rate for miners to 25 percent from 30 percent, and has lowered the precious metals royalty rate to seven percent from eight percent.
In addition to this, due to the untapped diverse and vast minerals resources, and the conducive environments to invest in the sector, the Minister noted that the number of investors who invest in the sector has been increasing significantly.
He mentioned that the Ministry has provided more than 30 licenses exclusively within the last 13 months alone whilst the government has provided a five billion Birr capital budget for those who invest in the sector within the aforementioned period of time.
Furthermore, Dr. Samuel stated that the Ministry has been working to end illegal practices that has been strangling down the sector; and to that end, it has drafted legal framework to address the issue.
He also added that the Ministry has been doing promotional works, as part of its efforts to unleash the country’s mining sector, by hosting various international conferences, noting that the Ethiopian International Mining Conference that took place from November 25 to 26, of this year was already the second one.
He indicated that 230 participants from over 70 companies, 18 exhibitors and 51 speakers participated in the conference.
The Ethiopian Herald November 27/2019
BY TAMERU REGASA
