BY ABEBE WOLDEGIORGIS
Recently, the Adama Science and Technology University (ASTU) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Korean based EKOS Steel and Metal Industry. As per the agreement, the Adama University’s Technology Department instructors will work with the EKOS in providing support in identifying industry problems and conducting research to resolve them.
The company also cooperates with the university to make it an externship for center of excellence in the area of designing, manufacturing and assembling.
Currently, there are more than 50 public universities all over the country and about 45 of them are administered under the Ministry of Science and Technology. And as to Lemi Guta (Ph.D), president of the Adama Science and Technology University out of these universities, ASTU and Addis Ababa Science and Technology Universities are assigned with a particular mandate of providing support to the industrialization program undertaken in the country.
In addition, with the collaboration of the industries, they have been producing technologically qualified human power. They are also engaged in facilitating technology and knowledge transfer and raising the industries’ production efficiency. As to Lemi, the university cooperates with industries located in 200 kilometer radius.
Currently, the government allocated 500 million birr to build the training facilities and research park in the Adama Campus to establish center of excellence. “And the machinery that is going to be installed in the center will be imported from the Korean Republic and to that end, the government has already allotted 100 million US Dollar.”
The EKOS Steel Mill PL owner and manager Shel Achichu, on his part, said that his company will try its level best to share the Korean experiences in linking the academic institutions with the manufacturing industries and creating center of excellence for industrial development. A specific project has also been established to support the efforts the Economic Development Cooperation Facility (EDCF).
The purpose of the project is to develop input for industrial development from locally available sources, save hard currency through import substitution, enhance the hard currency earnings for the country, build capacity through boosting export, transfer advanced technology and facilitate employment creation.
Based on the agreement between the two parties, five sectors are selected for working on excellence and the sectors include transportation and vehicle engineering, manufacturing, advance materials science and engineering, electrical systems and electronics and pharmaceutical science.
“To support clean development and the import substitution scheme, small electrical motor vehicle assembly will begin soon. In this scheme, potential local partners will be invited to take part,” he said. However, the programs to succeed, there are a number of challenges that need the collaboration of stakeholders to be resolved and these include scarcity of hard currency to import spare parts for machinery and power interruptions.
In addition, research is also being undertaken on refining technology and investment related to production facilities using oil waste and crude oil. In addition, it engages in producing synthetic engine oil which targets to substitute 30 percent of imported crude oil in the beginning and 100 percent of imports after three years. Currently, in Ethiopia, there are foreign companies engaged in exploring and exploiting crude oil in the Somali region and the EDCF project aspires to exploit this opportunity.
The center of excellence also endeavors on producing chemical fertilizer from locally sourced raw materials. Annually, the nation imports one million tons of chemical fertilizer from the foreign market and substituting this amount of imported goods with locally produced ones will significantly improve the shortage of hard currency in Ethiopia.
In addition, it involves in research on the technology of extracting raw materials such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, boron and ammonia which can be utilized as input for fertilizer production.
In line with this, the project has planned to replace chemical fertilizers which are unfriendly to the environment with organic fertilizer. The project also aspires to create a linkage between foreign investment and local companies engaged in fertilizer production.
With regard to exploring agribusiness, the project has planned to engage in smart farm for strawberry, paprika and tomato production, processing, packaging and exporting. It will also facilitate experience sharing with Korean companies in this regard.
In the past, the EKOS Company helped the Uzbekistan local producers and companies in modernizing their agribusiness and currently they export their products to Russia, earning as much as one billion USD from their export.
Side by side with these, the project is also planning to scale up the on-going agricultural technology of mass production via greenhouse and without using soil and the EKOS Mill PLC will be a potential partner in the process.
With respect of the pharmaceutical science, the project will engage in producing medicines using raw materials that are abundantly available locally such as myrrh and moringa. The pharmaceutical production also targets foreign markets. Other local ingredients are used in the production of pharmaceutical and health supplements and will be supplied to the local market to improve public health.
As to Lemi, the bid for purchasing the high tech machinery to be installed in the university campus has already been processed. The process of selecting a consultancy firm is also well underway. The Korean Exim Bank facilitates the purchasing process by providing loan and the transportation of the equipment might take up to two years.
There are stakeholders which are following up the process include the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Industrial Parks Development Corporation.
The center of excellence will be one of the best research complexes and enhance the nation industrial research capacity. The construction of 60 buildings which serve as the researchers’ dormitory, workshops and administrative buildings is completed.
Ethiopia aspires to advance its economic development through integrating science and technological education with industries but the weak link hampers the two sectors mutual benefits. The higher education teaching-learning process focuses more on theory than practice as the result; the role of education in advancing industrialization is below the required level.
In fact, many higher educational institutions are under-staffed and under-funded lack sufficient laboratory equipment and instructors spend more their time in teaching rather than in research and this intern minimize their contribution to industry development.
The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Adama Science and Technology University and EKOS is expected to play a crucial role in addressing the missing link between the two sectors.
The Ethiopian Herald January 20/2021
