ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia to host its first International Conference on Sustainable Industrial Areas (SIA) in the coming April.
Formerly held in India, China, Indonesia, Turkey, Mexico, Morocco and Egypt, the conference is expected to attract more than 300 participants from Africa, Europe and across the world.
With the growing interest to shift towards sustainable industrialisation, the 8th SIA conference will focus on three thematic areas: Industrial Transformation, Employment Creation and Environmental Innovation.
“It is in the interest of the Government of Ethiopia to have industries that are environmentally sustainable,” said Temesgen Tilahun, Deputy Investment Commissioner of Ethiopian Investment Commission during a press briefing held here yesterday.
“Building sustainable industries increase our competitiveness in the international arena, bringing in more international buyers. The Sustainable Industrial Conference is an important opportunity for Ethiopia to learn from experiences, revise our policies and implement effective and sustainable strategies”.
Ulrich Plein, Manager of GIZ supported Special Initiative Training and Job Creation project, also said :“Special Economic Zones, or in Ethiopia the newly established Industrial Parks offer a high potential for new decent jobs. The conference shall serve as a platform to exchange international experiences on job creation and sustainable economic development.”
Gail Warrander, Senior Investment Adviser, representing the UK Department for International Development (DFID) on her part said: “DFID sees the conference as useful in drawing out lessons learnt from countries like Ethiopia and Nigeria for those at earlier stages of industrialisation.”
Lelise Neme, CEO of the Industrial Parks Development Corporation also underlined that the Corporation is developing ‘eco-industrial parks’, an initiative designed to reduce waste and pollution by enabling businesses to efficiently share resources amongst themselves and with the local communities.
“The ‘Sustainable Industrial Areas’ conference will be a good opportunity for IPDC to learn from other countries’ experiences and build environmentally sustainable industries,” she said.
SIA Conferences – initiated and coordinated by the SIA Working Group of GIZ – have been carried out since almost 10 years. Being a valuable platform to discuss recent trends, best practices and future developments of SIA, they bring representatives from companies, industrial parks, industry associations, industrial development agencies, financial institutions, government institutions and international donor agencies.
The three-day conference to be held in Addis is organised by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in partnership with the Ethiopian Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC), Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC), UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The Ethiopian Herald March 7, 2019
BY STAFF REPORTER
