BY HIZKEL HAILU
The Planning and Development Commission of Ethiopia has recently prepared a 10 years development plan which will be implemented from the year 2020/21 to 2030/31. And extensive discussions have been made between the commission and each ministry, investors as well as each stakeholder.
And it was also learnt that the council of ministers ratified the plan recently. Following this the House of People’s Representatives has also ratified the plan yesterday after different questions and answers were made between the members and the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on the House of Peoples’ Representatives 11th Regular meeting.
At their meeting, the Premier has given extensive responses and explanations for different questions that were raised among the members regarding the 10 years plan and the current national situation.
The current economic agenda, reinforcement action on the TPLF, peace and security of the nation from different regions and cities were among issues that were raised by the members.
At the meeting, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (Ph.D.) said the national Growth Domestic Product (GDP) has grown by more than 100 billion Birr and per capita income has reached more than one thousand dollars.
The premier further stated that the ten-year perspectives plan is prepared based on the last three years’ reform improvements. He said the key components of the three-year domestic economic recovery are reducing debt burden, completing projects, improving revenue, stabilizing the market and ensuring sustainable growth.
While recalling the national problem faced by the economic pressure of the COVID-19, locusts, floods, and conflicts resulted in different challenges against the country, the premier also avowed that Ethiopia has achieved 6.1 percent economic growth.
Last year, a lot of work was carried out to prevent the COVID-19 Pandemic and to boost the national economy, he said. owing to this fact, he mentioned that the per capita income and the overall growth of the country is not benefiting all the people in the short term, adding that the amount of revenue and expenditure is reflected in the growth of GDP.
He said loans and investors will also drive GDP growth as well as per capita income to participate in the investment, adding that 191 billion Birr was earned in the first eight months of this year alone, while the capital expenditure was 160 billion Birr.
Comparing the performance with the past three years, the premier mentioned that it was able to collect revenue of 176 billion, 196 billion and 228.9 billion Birr by the fiscal years 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20 respectively.
Furthermore, he said that a budget of 34 billion Birr has been set aside for agricultural production and growth, excluding loans to farmers, adding that the road budget has doubled over the past three years, with the allocated amount of 59 billion Birr. Besides this, 16 billion Birr has been allocated for the health sector over the past years, he asserted.
While mentioning that banks’ loans to the private sector have increased significantly, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said that bank deposits in Ethiopia have reached 1.2 trillion Birr. In addition to reducing the country’s external debt burden from 37.6 percent to 26.8 percent over the past three years, the credit supply has been also increased by 38.4 percent, the premier noted.
As to him, an additional 6.2 million people have benefited from the bank through opening new bank accounts, especially since the currency change. Thus, the total savings account has been reached to 98 billion Birr which substitutes the total population of a given African country that has a bank account.
In elucidating the 1.2 trillion Birr was collected during the past six months of the current fiscal year, the premier has recalled that the banks were collected an amount of 730 billion, 899 billion and 1.04 trillion Birr by the years 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20 respectively.
He also explained that banks have disbursed 255 billion Birr loan in the last six months alone adding that 74 percent of the total loan was provided for the private sector. He also said that the private sectors are benefiting from the high level of credit, which is playing a positive role in job creation.
As to the premier, the inflation remains a challenge for the Ethiopian economy, adding to the point that the situation is particularly affecting low-income citizens. The Prime Minister also pointed out that various strategies are being developed to alleviate the problem in addition to increasing agricultural productivity.
Regarding the bank loans over the past three years, the Prime Minister mentioned that in 2017/18, 170 billion Birr was allocated. While 45 percent went to the private sector, the government accounted for 55 percent. And in the 2018/19 fiscal year, the banks have provided 236 billion Birr in order to stimulate the private sector. Of this, 61 per cent was given to the private sector and the government borrowed the rest 39 per cent.
By the same token from the total allocated loan amount of 271 billion Birr as of the year 2019/20, the share of the private sector was raised to 70 percent. And within the last six months of the current fiscal year, 74 percent of the total 155 billion Birr loans were given for the private sector.
As to the Prime Minister, exports have grown by 21 percent in the first half of the year despite many problems. He said gold has the largest share of all sectors. On the other hand, he noted that billions of dollars have been wasted due to swarms of locusts, floods, and insecurity.
He said the trade deficit has been narrowing in the past four years, adding it was able to reduce the trade deficit by less than 4 percent under negative pressure through increasing the export market and extensive inspection took the imported items.
“Our prosperity plan is based on the economic activity of the past 3 years. and our basic agenda of the home grown economic reform is mainly concerned on reducing the credit burden, completing many remaining projects, improving and enhancing the export business, improving revenue, stabilizing the market and ensuring sustainable growth,” the premier underscored.
All in all after strong discussion, members of the House of People’s Representatives have approved the motion presented by the premier regarding the 10 years perspective plan.
The premier has also called on the traders to honestly engage in the investment in order to support the country’s economy through understanding that the plan is of paramount importance for boosting the national economy.
The Ethiopian Herald March 24/2021
