BY DANIEL ALEMAYEHU
Ethiopia is striving and taking every step to maximize its capacity and achieve better economic performance in various directions. The Government of Ethiopia has also been establishing multiple institutions and standard infrastructures in order to foster manufacturing and investment in the country. The government has also made itself open to work with the private sectors to make them play their role in achieving a unison objective of scaling up the economy of the nation.
Ethiopia has been working on transforming its economic directions to a better one by changing the agriculture led to industrialization. To achieve this, the nation has formed a corporation dedicated to facilitate industry and manufacturing. Established in 2014, Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) is labeled as one of the public enterprises. It is an engine for rapid industrialization that nurtures manufacturing industries, accelerates economic transformation, promote and attract both domestic and foreign investors.
In the current climate, the government and the private sector jointly established industrial parks across the country. Most of the industrial parks are equipped with the standard infrastructures that investors and their investment need. With those 12 industrial parks built in different parts of the country, both local and foreign investors are investing and manufacturing standard products both for local and international markets. As a result, companies working in the industrial parks have been bringing multiple advantages to the nation.
In good truth, industrial parks are playing a vital role in job creation, a source of foreign exchange, skill and knowledge transformation, and other tangible contributions that have a tendency to inject better performance in the nation’s economy. Nowadays, industrial parks become the hub of job creation that can incorporate thousands of employees in a single compound. The best example might be the Hawassa industrial park. According to the park’s manager, Matiyos Ashenafi, the park has currently created jobs for more than 25 thousand operators. This number is registered in the current capacity that the park has. When the park starts operating in its fullest capacity, as to the manager, it can create more than 60 thousand jobs for citizens.
As the nation is experiencing a hard time regarding foreign exchange crunches, industrial parks have been ideal way out to meet the nation’s need in generating the necessary foreign exchange. It was reported in various platforms that industrial parks have generated quite a lot of million dollars from the products they supply for international markets. For instance, it was reported that Hawassa Industrial Park is one of the top income generating parks in the country. Before expulsion from the AGOA agreement, the park was able to generate up to 80 million USD from exporting products. Even after the expulsion, the park has generated more than 42 million USD. The remaining industrial parks have also shared the same story.
Those established industrial parks are also become the hub of skill and knowledge transformation. It is the fact that industries that are investing in the parks brought skills and knowledge that the people need to inquire. In this regard, Ethiopians have been beneficiary in learning and acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge from their employers. It is important to remember that at this very moment, Ethiopians have learnt a lot form those industries.
In addition, manufacturing employees in Ethiopia this time have the skill and knowledge that make them competitive with manufacturing employees in other countries. The government and the private sector coupled with other responsible stakeholders are working together to make those parks a hub of skill and knowledge transformation.
On the other hand, it is true that those establishments have not been operating with their fullest capacity. The nation has been going through a number of challenges and obstacles in the fast few years. In relation to the war in the northern part of the country, most industrial parks in that direction have been out of operation, and some of them are completely destroyed. Again, the expulsion of the country from AGOA put negative pressure and made investors close their investments and flee from the nation. Besides, it has been very hard to attract new investors.
Lately, good news was reported indicating that the Government of United Kingdom launched tariff- free trade for 65 countries around the world that open doors to supply their products in the UK markets Of which, 37 of them are African countries and Ethiopia is one of them. It is reported that on the launching ceremony of the tariff free trade at Bole Lemi Industrial Park, Nigel Huddleston of the United Kingdom Ministry of Commerce stated that the program will help the manufacturers engaged in the production of garment, textiles and other manufacturing sub sectors in Ethiopia to supply their products to the UK market for free.
IPDC CEO, Aklilu Tadesse, on his part said that the corporation has been searching for market options in cooperation with other stakeholders to address the market problems faced by investors working in industrial parks in connection with the expulsion of AGOA.
With all the odds, industrial parks have been performing better. Government bodies and responsible stakeholders have been working on creating tangible market linkage between investors and companies in the industrial parks with the local people. In fact, companies and industries need raw materials for their industry, and the local people have the capacity to supply the necessary raw materials to those industries. To connect the two bodies, those stakeholders especially officials in the industrial parks play the crucial part.
In an exclusive interview with local media, Corporation Marketing and Communication Department Head, Zemen Jonedi discussed on the market linkage created between industrial parks and people around the park. As to Zemen, the industrial parks that are operating across the nation have created market opportunities and linkages to over 300 thousand farmers.
The corporation played the role of the protagonist to create the expected market linkage for the nearby communities. To this end, nearby farmers are providing agricultural raw materials and inputs to the agro- processing industries operating in the industrial parks found in different parts of the country. Those farmers have been benefited due to the market created with industries in the parks.
For instance, as to the Head, more than 15,000 local farmers are benefitting from supplying avocado to Jimma Industrial Park for oil agro-processing industry. Not only that, over 280,000 farmers are also supplying their cereal crops, particularly barley for Bole Lemi and Debre Birhan Industrial Parks malt agro-processing industries.
Similarly, Chinese companies based in Semera Industrial Park are also looking for engaging in camel diary production. Such desire helps to benefit pastoralists in Afar region as camels are abundantly raised there, he mentioned.
In Adama Industrial Park with agricultural research center, research and development activities on seed multiplication with a view to substituting imported flax as an input for the production of woolen clothes are being carried out.
Factories in industrial parks are engaged in various productions including textile, apparel, agro- processing, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical among others. Investment flow is increasing, especially after the implementation of the Pretoria peace agreement.
Noting almost all 11 industrial parks are operational, he pointed out activities are being carried out to restore Mekelle Industrial Park while Kombolcha Industrial Park has already resumed its activities following the restoration of peace in the area.
The Ethiopian Herald June 29/2023
