BY HIZKEL HAILU
The ongoing economic reform in Ethiopia is expected to benefit regional states particularly in attracting more investment and facilitating the transformation of small and micro enterprises into medium scale industries.
Following the implementation of the economic reform at the national level, the Southern, Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ State (SNNPS) is aiming to lure more FDI and transform its enterprises into industries.
Speaking to The Ethiopian Herald, Teshome Takele, SNNPS Enterprises and Industry Development Bureau Head said the state is one of the beneficiaries of the ongoing economic reform.
Prior to the reform, higher government officials did not give adequate attention to providing support to small enterprises to speed up their transformation into industries.
Following the reform, the Office and the sector have received due attention and the reform has brought about several advantages to small and micro enterprises and industry development.
First, regional job creation council was established that is mandated with the task of assessing the job creation performance of each sector in the region as part of the reform.
And, he said, as ‘idle hands are the devil’s workshop’ the root causes of conflicts that have been witnessed here and there during the past couple of years were the prevalence of high unemployment rate among the youth. Hence, it is a timely issue.
Therefore, the reform played a pivotal role in increasing the supply capacity of the enterprises besides its role in creating ample job opportunity. And the youth in the region are actively participating in building the regional state and their future than engaging in destructive activities, he asserted. Therefore, following the reform, the regional state has been fairly redistributing the fund for the job creation scheme to the youth.
According to Teshome, the economic development of the regional state is mainly driven by the second Growth and Transformation Plan. Agriculture being the major economic sector, the major types of crops that grow in the region are root crops and cereal crops such as maize, teff, wheat, barley and pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, spices, coffee, and tea.
He further added that the region has significant mineral resource potential coupled with textile and woodwork. Tourism has also become increasingly important in the region.
Public investments in the region are mainly planned by the federal government and the regional government. The regional government has shown strong commitment to implement the national economic policies with better capacity.
The federal government’s public investment relates to industrial parks while all other investments are planned and implemented by the regional government.
However, major project selection by the regional government is largely based on regional priorities as determined in the overall government medium-term strategic plan. Moreover, the number of enterprises has increased from the last couple of years.
Noting that there were more than 37 thousand small and micro enterprises in the region, the Bureau noted that, some 20 of them have been transformed into industries.
There is still a lot to be done in terms of fully tapping the export performance of the regional state. For this to happen, “we are working to improve the raw materials supply and market linkage for the enterprises and emerging industries. These enterprises have created more than one million job opportunities for youths so far,” Teshome added.
“Our office is working in order to transfer many of the enterprises into industries. We are closely supporting and following up the enterprises in terms of sharing the best experiences from around the world and letting them access loans for future projects,” he added.
The enterprises that are now transformed into industries are mainly engaged in machinery and equipment, wood and metalwork and other priority sectors and have shown significant growth in the past two years.
“We are now able to create manufacturers that are producing export standard furniture for the international market,” he said adding “Accordingly, many investors, particularly in the areas of agriculture, wood and metalwork are visiting the state and some have started their activity.”
“In this case, we have provided different support including land offer and other incentives to the investors to create a business-friendly environment. The stability and security in the region by itself is a big incentive for people to come and invest in SNNPR,” he noted.
Ethiopia has identified food processing, textile and leather, chemical and metal and engineering manufacturing as the priority sub-sectors of the industry sector. And the regional state has been undertaking its industrialization scheme based on these national priority areas.
The Ethiopian herald December 27/2020
