Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed visited the Integrated Agro-Industrial Park and the Rural Transformation Center which are being developed in Oromia regional state this weekend.
The Integrated Agro-Industrial Park (IAIP) in Central Eastern Oromia, Bulbula area, is one of the four pilot projects commissioned by the government.
Ethiopia has launched a project to construct four pilots of IAIPs in Amhara, Oromia, Tigray and SNNP regions. The parks would play a crucial role in accelerating rural transformation and bring agricultural transformation.
Following his visit, the Premier said that such zones would be crucial in realising development by accelerating structural transformation.
He said the country would benefit a lot if Diasporas organise and invest in the development of industrial parks.
An IAIP is a geographic cluster of independent firms grouped to gain economies of scale and positive externalities by sharing infrastructure and taking advantage of opportunities for bulk purchasing and selling.
IAIPs will have infrastructure including roads, power, water, communications, drainage, sewerage, a sewage treatment plant and an effluent treatment plant, among others.
Specialized infrastructure consists of cold storage units, quarantine facilities, quality control labs, quality certification centres, raw material storage and central processing centres, among other dedicated infrastructure.
As each IAIP is served by a network of rural transformation centres (RTC) which provide linkages to producers, the Premier has also visited the centre being built in Shashemene to support the park.
The centres are aimed to serve as raw material aggregation points in the catchment areas (100 km radius) of each IAIP.
They include warehouses, input supply, sorting, grading, extension services, pre-processing activities and microfinance
The RTC in Shashemen, in which its construction has reached 60 per cent, is expected to supply fruits and vegetables, wheat, barley, haricot bean, fava bean, tomato, potato, dairy, fish, poultry, honey and meat to the park.
Prime Minister Dr Abiy said that the government would expand the best practice gained in the Integrated Agro-Industrial Park being built in Bulbula and the rural transformation centre in Shashemene to other areas.
Ethiopia has planned to develop a total of 17 IAIPs across the country to accelerate rural transformation thereby realise agricultural transformation.
