Ethiopia envisions to become a middle- income country and to become the manufacturing hub in Africa by 2025. The target is not a mere quantitative; it rather includes sound poverty reduction, improving health and education sector and achieving growth without compromising the environment. The economic, social, and environmental developments are the three key pillars to achieving the target.
The newly established government of Ethiopia pledges to work aggressively in collaboration with investors, stakeholders and its citizens as well. Ethiopia has enormous and untouched natural resources and if it is utilized, supports the nation’s economy.
During the opening session of the training program provided for the newly appointed Ministers and State Ministers recently, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) told trainees to look at their surrounding rather than scratching the sky in order to change Ethiopia.
He also said that it is possible to tap the nation’s resources through removing the dust and the lawn (soaring wild plant, a kind of grass) that covers them for long years.
He noticed that the areas such as Entoto, Friendship and Unity Parks were covered by lawn and dust for many years. Today, these same places have been turned to awe-inspiring tourist destinations, making the country to earn foreign currency in addition to creating jobs to thousands.
Underscoring that this is the right time for Ethiopia’s prosperity, the Prime Minister further explained that the new leadership is supposed to take Ethiopia to prosperity through utilizing its water, land and human and other natural resources aggressively.
“We won’t succumb to foreign pressures rather it gives us chance to focus on the nation’s development and prosperity,” he noted.
The newly appointed Ministers and State Ministers have immense duties which are going to be delivered and the prime minister told them to display high moral integrity and discipline in their efforts of carrying out their day-to-day activities.
According to the prime minister, the people of this great country deserve nothing short of this. The stronger the pressure, the harder they will be to lay the foundation for prosperity.
The Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute (ETIDI) have it that in the first quarter of the current Ethiopian fiscal year, the it has earned more than 32. 5 million USD by exporting textiles to foreign markets.
Agriculture, textile and apparel, leather and leather products, pharmaceuticals, agro-processing, ICT, power generation, mining, tourism, among others are also the strategic sectors identified to boost both foreign and local investment.
Institute’s Communication Affairs Director Bantihun Gesesse said the Institute set a target to earn 29.9 million USD in the aforementioned budget year. But it could achieve 107.7 percent of its plan.
As mentioned above though Ethiopia has abundant natural resources, due to the absence of sufficient technology, finance and trained labor force, the resource is still not properly tapped and the people suffer from appalling poverty said Mekonen Abera, an Economist by profession. Sharing Prime Minster Abiy Ahmed’s idea, he further said that both local and multinational investors shall unearth the hidden resources.
As to him, agriculture, industry, mining, horticulture, poultry, dairy products, cultural artifacts, leather industries are among the sectors available for investors. Each region in the country has its own investment opportunities; hence, investors are only required to tap their areas of interest.
Nevertheless, though the government is trying its level best to tackle poverty and to achieve economic growth, the TPLF which is labeled as terrorist is trying to disrupt the government’s efforts, said Mekonen.
He further explained that the new members of cabinet are supposed to sort out areas which better support the nation’s economy and at the same time to meet investors’ demand.
With regarding to cultivating energy resources, the nation has a tremendous potential of renewable energy. It is possible to generate about 45,000 MW from hydro power, about 10,000 MW from wind power, and 5,000 MW from geothermal.
According to the recent World Bank Report, Ethiopia is on the top level in East Africa in attracting FDI. The existing suitable development policies, competitive and trainable labor force can play crucial role in attracting FDI.
The country has untapped mineral resources such as gold, potash, natural gas, copper, and platinum. In addition to all these resources, it has vast arable land, favorable climate, diverse agro-ecological zones—that enable to grow almost all crops—cheapest electricity per kilo watt hours, and trained human power which can attract investment.
As agricultural economy, Ethiopia is the third largest wheat producing country in Africa however, it has remained a net importer of wheat. Therefore, reversing the situation sooner rather than later is essential.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed recently visited wheat cluster farming activities in Oromia region’s Hitesso Woreda of Arsi Zone accompanied by different higher government officials including former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.
“This season’s crop production in the Somali region is very promising. Our focus throughout the country is ensuring food security and strengthening our capacity for self-reliance,” Abiy tweeted after his visit.
Out of the 680,000 hectares of land cultivated in the last harvest season in Arsi Zone, 388,000 hectares have been cultivated with a cluster farming system, said officials of the Zone.
The government has been promoting a cluster farming system for the past three years in order to increase wheat productivity while availing more inputs to the sector. Accordingly, recent projections show that productivity could soon increase to a record level as the government continues to dedicate more resources to agriculture.
Wheat production in the 2020-21 marketing year is projected to be 5.1 million tons but due to desert locust infestation, resulting in quantity and quality losses, says a Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report under the auspicious of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
However, the production in the 2021-22 marketing year is expected to be a record 5.18 million tons, shows SDA’s forecast for Ethiopia, it was learnt.
Quoting the Prime Minister’s idea “We are working hard to become self-sufficient in wheat production by cultivating undeveloped lands in the past,” Mekonen said that agriculture in particular, cluster farming in particular is amongst the investment areas that the government shall invite and support investors in a way to boom the nation’s economy.
However, continued challenges such as unskilled labor, high transport costs, limited financial and telecommunications services, and land tenure insecurity remain. Further, investments by the private sector lag behind other countries according to the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index.
All in all despite the above promising progresses, some sort of instability here and there, the COVID-19 pandemic, deficit of foreign exchange, among others are the major challenges that the economy is facing. However, he mentioned that it is possible to prosper the nation’s economy through exploiting its natural resources congruously.
BY HIZKEL HAILU
The Ethiopian herald October 23/2021
