BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) Commissioner Lelise Leme on her New Year message calls on investors to invest in Ethiopia more than ever, for a number of reasons.
In many ways, the year 2020 has been a memorable year for all the wrong reasons. What started as a promising year, especially for Ethiopia, and the beginning of a new decade turned very quickly into one of the most challenging years that the world has seen in recent history. Countries across regions and the world at large, regardless of size and level of development, were forced to implement partial and total lockdown of their economies with devastating consequences on business, employment and investment flows.
No-one predicted the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic crisis that followed. Therefore, no country was prepared for it.
Ethiopia was among the first set of countries that took bold and decisive actions to increase awareness of Covid-19 pandemic among the population and introduce effective measures to control the spread of the virus. Thanks largely to the farsighted and astuteness of the Ethiopian leadership, these measures were implemented swiftly and effectively.
In addition to increasing facilities in the health sector, the Government undertook a series of policy measures to prevent mass unemployment, minimize hardship among low-income households and support the business community, both small and large. During the early days of the pandemic, the Council of Ministers announced several tax-related measures and an employee pension payment scheme covering the first few months of the year.
The National Bank of Ethiopia also made over 15 billion birr available to private banks in the form of liquidity injection to enable them to provide debt relief and additional loans to their customers. Moreover, banks were instructed to allocate foreign currency to importers and manufacturers engaged in the production and supply of products used to control Covid-19.
Besides this all these, the Commission also amended investment legislation, and conducted various efforts to let pertinent stakeholders know the reforms content in line with these scenarios. EIC held discussions with investors from America, Asia, Australia, Africa, and other countries.
The discussion platform is co-organized by Ethiopian Investment Commission with a view to enhancing to attract and retain foreign direct investment (FDI) and multifaceted developments in the investment sector.
During the meetings, the investors shared their concern and challenges which are important inputs for further development. Aftercare strategic action also introduced during the sessions.
The Commission also held similar discussions with the Middle East and Asia, Turkey, Israel as well as industrial park investors aimed to update on the amended investment law and initiate good communications for better aftercare services.
Officials from Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) also joined the seminar while industrial park investors and IP developers received a briefing on the investment law reform.
This writer had the opportunity to partake in the discussion and approach Ethiopian Investment Commission Legal Advisor Dr. Tadesse Kassa to understand more about the reform.
He said that it is high time to invest in Ethiopia as the country is adopting progressive measures to create favorable environment for investors. In this regard, the ongoing reform is also an addition as it is opening a lot of room for the private sector.
Ethiopia’s leadership is smartly modifying and adopting policies and strategies that will sustain Ethiopia’s growth. Reforms in telecom and logistics are expected to open door to the private sector and to more competition.
Policy commitment to Public private partnership (PPP) for large infrastructure projects (including the recently announced 7 billion USD worth of infrastructure projects seeking private partnerships) and initiative to radically improve the ease of doing business are among the favorable conditions to invest in Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian Herald January 2/2021
