Since 2018, we have embarked upon reforms rooted in a deep understanding of our potentials, challenges and opportunities to expand our economy and accelerate poverty reduction. Our vision is to fully unlock Ethiopia’s untapped potential in various sectors and to drive this growth through able institutions and highly skilled labor.
Our pathway to prosperity follows a multi -sector growth approach to enable equitable development. Manufacturing remains a priority, particularly because of its close linkage with other sectors such as mining but also because its holds its own immense potential full scale learning by doing and acquisition of technological knowhow.
We are an entrepreneurial state that recognizes the private sector as the engine of growth and aims to harness our demographic dividend for productivity.
Excellences allow me to share with you briefly ingredients that comprise our reforms. First we have been making deliberate policy shifts aimed at boosting productivity in all sectors and creating a conducive investment and business environments.
Our homegrown economic reform agenda introduced macro -financial, structural and sectoral reformers aimed at liberalizing key economic sectors such as telecom and banking, fostering private sector investment, enhancing external competitiveness, productive capabilities.
The establishment of Ethiopia’s sovereign wealth fund has helped reorient public enterprises to a commercial focus and enabled strong partnership with the private sector. We have strengthened our adaptive industrial policymaking by establishing a free economic zone in order to be more agile in the face of a changing world. Second, we have been investing extensively in multi -sector growth sources under our homegrown economic reform pillars of agriculture, industry, tourism, ICT and mining.
These investments have translated into noteworthy achievements, including increased agricultural productivity, the emergence of a growing mining sector, robust momentum in the digital economy and notable flagship destination initiatives in the tourism sector.
The intensified production of strategic commodities like wheat, coffee and avocado, alongside promising measures for substituting edible oil and rice production are pivotal elements in Ethiopia pursuit of food self-sufficiency.
Over the past five years, we have managed to raise our total farm area from 15.3 million hectares to 22.9 million hectares, with vast amount of land for crop production still available for cultivation as we continue expanding on our potential and the agricultural sector.
The digital economy is making substantial progress driven by the implementation of foundational elements such as a digital ID and payment systems and the establishment of the Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute that focuses on research and development of solutions in our priority sectors.
In the industrial sector we have brought into operations 12 large scale industrial parks in which textile garment industries are flourishing including the introduction of three new integrated agro-industrial parks.
Ethiopia’s laser and laser products industry is also sizable, while chemical and construction input processing, in addition to manufacturing technology and engineering, offer great potential as import substitution industries.
The late -comer advantage for countries like Ethiopia is that we can do industry development right. Ethiopia’s net-zero and climate resilient development strategy enables us to make our economic development priority compatible with climate commitments, which brings me to the third point of green growth and clean energy. We firmly recognize that sustainable industrial development must not come at the cost of the environment or the well -being of our people.
Harnessing the potential of renewable energy sources to power our industries is our priority. Through our national energy policy and the energy efficiency strategies for various sectors, the government is committed to building a climate resilient green economy by expanding electricity generation from clean energy sources.
Ethiopia already generates 98% of its energy from clean sources. The grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam is Africa’s largest hydropower plant and Koysha is the third largest. We are expanding our wind, solar and geothermal sources and currently harnessing green hydrogen to support industrial growth.
Nationally, Ethiopia has more than 60,000 megawatt potential from our diversified and abundant renewable energy resources. But reaching this capacity requires significant investments. On green growth, Ethiopia remains a leader on the continent in the practical approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Since 2019, we have been diligently planting trees to address our dual goal of food security and climate change mitigation. 32.5 billion Seedlings have been planted in five years through the mobilization of more than 25 million citizens throughout the country annually.
Lastly I would like to emphasize that social development is a key foundation for our development goals. “We have invested in education and the skills development of our youth, occupying them with the capabilities needed in various industries and innovative economic sectors. Our approach is to be inclusive and equitable, benefitting all segments of our society, especially the marginalized and the vulnerable.”
Excellences ladies and gentlemen Ethiopia is a resourceful, resilient and productive nation on a path to unlocking many of its potentials for inclusive and sustainable growth. Our multiple reformers have allowed us to double our GDP and our per capital income in five years. But one of the basic tools for sustainable economic growth and industrialization is the attraction of foreign direct investment.
We’ve been hard at work creating a favorable investment and business environment to attract FDI, yet further support is needed in matching the right investments to the right sectors. Similarly, skills and technology transfer are a center of Ethiopia’s industrial development policy and practice.
The jobs creation agenda is important to us and it must be a joint agenda with countries in Europe and North America which are main destinations for migrants. We have an abundant youth population that has increasingly become technologically savvy and skilled. We want to retain this talent in our country and on the continent. To do so, we seek the cooperation of developed countries in technology transfer, investments and development financing.
In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that we firmly believe that by pursuing inclusive and sustainable industrialization and diversifying our economy, we can ensure prosperity, reduce inequality and contribute to a better future for our people and the world. I thank you.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2023
