• 1143 Chinese companies engaged in different investment sectors
ADDIS ABABA – As most of Chinese companies in Ethiopia are engaged in manufacturing investment, they are playing crucial role in facilitating the country’s industrialization. Their investment projects have also created over 200 thousand permanent and temporary jobs, Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) disclosed.
EIC Public Relations Director Mekonnen Hailu told The Ethiopian Herald that China is leading Ethiopia’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and currently 1143 Chinese projects are engaged in different investment sectors. Mekonnen said that from the 1143 Chinese investment projects in Ethiopia, 621 of them are operational, already started their production while 144 of them in implementation phase and 378 on pre-implementation phase.
According to him only the operational Chinese investment projects have created over 200 thousand permanent and temporary job opportunities for Ethiopian citizens, 138, 673 permanent and 61, 854 temporary.
Meanwhile, among the investment projects 867 engaged in manufacturing, 130 on construction sector, 95 them on equipment rental and consultancy service, 28 on hotel and lodge, 10 on agriculture, seven of them on tour operation, transport and communication while six of them in other sectors, Mekonnen noted.
According to the director, since most of the Chinese investment projects are engaged in the manufacturing sector, they are playing crucial role in facilitating the country’s journey of industrialization and for the country’s efforts of job opportunity creation.
As to Mekonnen FDI from China is growing year by year. The Chinese companies are building industrial parks with their own capacity. He said that the Eastern Industrial Park in Dukem which has 100 enterprises was constructed by Chinese company and currently another Chinese company is building an industrial park in Arerti.
Not only that the participation of Chinese companies in the country’s infrastructural networking and building of mega projects like express ways, railways and other infrastructure is aggressive, the director stated. This indicates that China and Ethiopia are working closely and are best development partners for their mutual development, he stated.
During its media briefing on the farewell of 2019 recently, China Embassy in Addis Ababa stated that only in 2019, 148 new projects were registered to invest in Ethiopia and the investment flow to Ethiopia has increased by 12 per cent.
The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and The People’s Republic of China started diplomatic ties in 1970. The countries are preparing to celebrate their Golden Jubilee diplomatic relationship this year both in Ethiopia and China. Their 50 year anniversary is expected to boost their strong multidimensional relations to the highest level in all sectors.
The Ethiopian Herald, February 8/2020
BY DARGIE KAHSAY
