Chinese group Huajian Group signed an agreement with Ethiopian authorities on May 30, 2019, for the management of  Jimma industrial park.

In the framework of that agreement, the Chinese group will invest $100 million in the construction of shoe manufacturing and coffee processing plants. The agreement also includes setting up a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) center. 

It will also help attract other Chinese groups in this 75-hectare park. Lelise Neme, managing director of the Ethiopia Industrial Parks Development Corporation, indicated that Jimma park would create 15,000 jobs in the long term.  

Built by the China Communications Construction Company, Jimma industrial park was inaugurated in December 2018 by Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed.

Huajian Group has been operating in Ethiopia since 2011. It already has two shoe manufacturing plants that produce 5 million pairs yearly and employ more than 7,000 people.

On June 4, President Sahle-Work Zewde met with Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, in Vancouver, to discuss various issues of mutual concern.

The two leaders spoke of their shared commitment to advancing women, peace and security and support for the Elsie Initiative.

They noted the deep and warm relationship between Ethiopia and Canada, reflected in strong people-to-people ties and shared values of diversity and inclusion, particularly in the context of federalism.

They discussed the importance of investing in grassroots women’s organizations to drive lasting change and welcomed the launch of the Equality Fund.

They discussed the importance of investing in infrastructure to support growth and change as well as looked forward to strengthening bilateral cooperation and committed to staying in close contact.

President Sahle-Work commended Canada’s stronger partnership with Ethiopia, including at difficult times, and expressed the government’s commitment to strengthen its economic cooperation with Canada in particular.

Prime minister Trudeau expressed his appreciation for the President’s attendance at Women Deliver and for her leadership on advancing gender equality for Ethiopians.

He noted Ethiopia’s continued commitment to building peace in the Horn of Africa, making a substantial contribution to stability and prosperity in the region.

Prime Minister Trudeau welcomed the recent significant reforms and transformation in Ethiopia and took note of the elections planned for 2020.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and Technology on June 4 launched a new initiative that aimed to boost women’s participation in technology-related entrepreneurship.

The newly launched initiative mainly aimed to promote women entrepreneurs in technology and software science through trainings for women drawn from different parts of the country.

The newly launched initiative, which is said to be an outcome of a joint partnership among the Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and Technology and the Entoto Fellowship, an Ethiopian-based think-tank, will offer trainings for a first batch of 25 women who have gathered in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, it was noted.

Women and Youth Division Director at the ministry, Elisabeth Gebreselassie, said during the launching event that the Ethiopian government is committed to boost women’s participation in line with the ever-transforming technological advancement around the world.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, had recently stressed his government’s ambition to make the information, communication and technology sector as a “key anchor” of the country’s economic development endeavors.

The Ministry of Peace has announced plans to return all internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their areas of origin by the end of this month.

Minister of Peace, Muferiat Kamil, told journalists yesterday that the repatriation process will be conducted voluntarily.

Out of the total 2.3 million IDPs, 1.2 million people were displaced before March 2018 and the remaining 1.1 million after April 2018, she said.

The IDPs received food and non-food assistance in their temporary sites, with the government of Ethiopia covering 60 percent of the spending and donors contributing the remaining 40 percent, according to Muferiat.

As a result of the efforts undertaken during the past two months, 1.3 million people have returned to their areas of origin, the Minister indicated.

She said the returnees would be provided with all the necessary rehabilitation support for the coming six months.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed of Somalia on Sunday 2 June and held discussions at the office of the Prime Minister.

In their discussions, they raised bilateral issues of mutual interest, including further strengthening cooperation in regional peace and security.

Relations between the two countries have further strengthened in recent months, with visits by both leaders to their respective capitals. Somali President last visited Addis Ababa a few months back, following which he flew with PM Abiy to Nairobi to mediate on a diplomatic spat between Kenya and Somalia.

He also went to Ethiopia for a tripartite meeting between the two countries and neighboring Eritrea.

The two leaders, accompanied by the First Lady of Somalia, planted seedlings within the compound.

Prime Minister Abiy launched last week a campaign to plant four billion trees across Ethiopia. He kicked off the initiative in Adama, Oromia region and has since joined visitors to plant seedlings.

The Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) revealed on May that ten global companies had signed memoranda of understanding (MoU) with the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) to set up factories inside the Kilinto Pharmaceutical Industrial Park.

With a total size of 337 hectares, the industrial park is nearing completion. Once completed, the Kilinto Pharmaceutical Industrial Park will have the capacity to accommodate more than 1,000 factories. Located in the south of Addis Ababa, Kilinto is being developed in two phases in collaboration with the World Bank Group.

The industrial park, which is fully financed by the World Bank, features 18-km of asphalt road, provision of essential social services, green spaces, warehouses, business centers, and car parking space, according to the Ethiopian Industry Parks Development Corporation (IPDC).

According to Adenan Bere, Communications Director at the IPDC, Ethiopia expects to lure world-class companies to help its economy through the export of pharmaceutical products as well as import-substitution.
Bere also noted that in addition to attracting foreign firms to penetrate Ethiopia’s emerging pharmaceutical sector, the IPDC is also working with local financial institutions to support local firms to invest in the industrial park.

As the Ethiopian government in recent years embarked on attracting foreign firms in the pharmaceutical sector, Chinese firms are becoming among the major international firms in exerting their capital and technology in the industry.

In June last year, Chinese pharmaceutical giant, Sansheng Pharmaceuticals Plc, had inaugurated its production plant in Ethiopia amid Ethiopia’s higher demand for import substitution in medicines.
Sansheng Pharmaceuticals Plc commenced its first phase of production in June 2018 inside the premises of the Eastern Industry Zone on the outskirt of Ethiopia’s capital.

The Ethiopian government, which has been expressing its concern over the minimal share of local medical drugs production for the country’s domestic use, also stressed the benefits of the Chinese pharmaceutical firm in saving a substantial amount of hard currency through import substitution.

Demeke Mekonnen, Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia, said during the plant’s inauguration ceremony that despite the Ethiopian government’s various measures to support the pharmaceutical sector, the “sector has not yet evolved into where we projected it to be — both in terms of its investment portfolio, production capacity, technology acquisition and the creation of employment opportunities.”

He also noted that the sector is still dominated by heavy importation of pharmaceutical products from abroad, which currently represents about 85 percent of the annual 500 million U.S. dollar local market.
“Your investment to Ethiopia could not have come at a more opportune moment,” Mekonnen said.

Ethiopia is currently constructing or has commissioned 15 industrial parks as part of a plan to turn the country into a light manufacturing hub in Africa by 2020.

Chinese companies, which are the leading partners of the Ethiopian government in the construction of industrial parks across the country, are also actively engaging their capital and technologies by investing inside the newly built industrial parks.

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a total of $550 million for Ethiopia to support the country’s efforts to improve the livelihoods of pastoralists and its ongoing power sector reforms.

Accordingly, it approved $350m ($70m grant $280m credit) from the International Development Association (IDA) in support of the country’s efforts to improve the livelihoods and resilience of 2.5 million pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in low land areas.

The Low lands Livelihood Resilience Project will help to improve the livelihoods and resilience of pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in Ethiopia by addressing their binding constraints, the Bank said in a statement.

“The project will put communities in charge of their own development priorities by enabling them to identify, lead and manage local development initiatives,” said Carolyn Turk, World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia, Sudan, and South Sudan.

According to the statement, the project will reduce long-term environmental degradation and communities’ vulnerability to climate change-related droughts.

It will also facilitate access to essential social services such as water resources to communities, upgrade veterinary facilities, and help construct key infrastructure such as bridges roads, livestock markets, small scale irrigation schemes.

The project will support the introduction of technologies that improve animal productivity (i.e., milk and meat production). Furthermore, it will improve market linkages and commercialization by facilitating the development of partnerships between private companies and groups of producers.

Similarly, the $200m Renewable Energy Guarantees Program (REGREP) approved by the bank will support Ethiopia’s ongoing power sector reforms and leverage private sector financing for renewable energy generation.

The program will support the Government of Ethiopia’s ongoing power sector reforms and leverage private sector financing for renewable energy generation.

REGREP will support the development of over 1,000 MW of greenfield solar and wind energy Independent Power Producer (IPP) projects in Ethiopia, including the World Bank Group Scaling Solar initiative.

Enabled by the 2018 Public-Private Partnership Proclamation, this program reflects a new way of doing business in the energy sector in Ethiopia – transitioning from continued public-financing towards private sector-led competitively tendered procurement of new renewable generation capacity.

“With the support of the World Bank Group, this program will create a platform for much-needed private sector participation in the crucial energy sector by lowering the risks of investing in Ethiopia,” said Carolyn Turk, World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia, Sudan, and South Sudan.

“The program has the potential to leverage over $1.5 billion in private sector investment,” she added.

http://www.investethiopia.gov.et/

The Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) just launched a new bilingual website (English/ Chinese), where all companies or persons interested in investing in Ethiopia will find essential information such as:

• Foreign investors testimonials;
• investment and tax incentives;
• how to hire workforce in Ethiopia;
• living in Ethiopia;
• how to start a business;
• land & property;
• industrial parks;
• amenities, logistics & infrastructure;
• service providers;
• … and much more.

Don’t miss this occasion to discover everything Ethiopia has to offer!

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed kicked off over the weekend what is meant to become a mission to plant four billion trees across the country.

The initiative, which is organized under the banner of the National Green Development program, is set to start during the rainy season.

“Over the past years Ethiopia’s forest coverage has decreased, and the initiative is set to mobilize national reforestation at 40 trees per head,” the PM’s office said in a social media post.

PM Abiy held discussions with the National Agri Transformation leaders in Adama city, in his home region of Oromia. He tasked participants – which included most high-profile government officials – on their role and responsibilities in modernizing the sector.

Ethiopia has, in recent years, have suffered from the negative impact of climate change, especially in relation to droughts in parts of the country. According to Ethiopia’s environment, forest and climate change Commission, the initiative will help to cover more than a million hectares of land with forest.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has called for unity during the togetherness and thanksgiving Iftar (fast-breaking) dinner held at the Millennium Hall yesterday.

Speaking at the occasion, Abiy said: “The unity of Muslims is tantamount to the unity of the whole country.”

“We look good when we come together and unite,” he told thousands of Muslims who gathered to attend the event.

Muslims account for more than 34% of Ethiopia’s more than 100 million population. Since coming to power in 2018, Abiy has allowed them to move ahead with a plan to institute an elected Majlis (Supreme Council).

The iftar was organized at Millennium Hall by the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council to thank the prime minister for winning hearts of his Muslim country people.

He further pledged that the government would support the construction in Addis Ababa of a grand mosque for Muslims to come together on events such as Eid al Adha and Eid al Fitr.

He said the mosque would symbolize the iconic Abyssinian Emperor Negashi who treated companions of Prophet Muhammad well when they fled persecution in Mecca.

The Prime Minister also said the government would provide the necessary support for the establishment of an Islamic bank in Ethiopia.