Industrial parks in Ethiopia have exported worth $122 million products during the first nine months of current Ethiopian fiscal year started July 8, 2019.
The income has increased by 32 percent from same period the previous year, according to Lelise Neme, CEO of Industrial Parks Development Corporation the state agency in charge of building and managing industrial parks in Ethiopia.
Built by the government focusing maily on jobs creation and boosting export earnings, industrial parks in Ethiopia are currently engaged in manufacturing of apparels, textiles and garment. One park (Bole Lemi -1) is dedicated for pharmaceuticals manufacturing.
Most of the industrial parks are filled by foreign investors. Some 70,000 are estimated to work in the over a dozen active industrial parks spread across the country. Hawassa, Adama, Kombolcha, Jimma, and Bole Lemi 1 in Addis Ababa are currently fully occupied industrial parks. Mekelle, Bahir Dar, Debre Berhan and Dire Dawa are partially operational, according to the information from the official website of the Corporation.
In addition some private owned industrial parks in Ethiopia such as, Eastern Industrial Park, which is built and managed by Chinese investors, have also been operational.
allowing industrial parks to sell their products in domestic market is among the stimulus action taken by the government for companies operating in the industrial parks to help the investors mitigate with the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, according to Lelise.
She also stated that Ethiopian Airlines has provided discount for transporting products of industrial parks to help them continue export and importing inputs in the face of COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the incentives that has been attracting investors to commence operation in industrial parks include, the one stop shop services, which involves customs and immigration services within the parks.
The fact that the manufacturing companies have also be able to benefit from duty-free export to the United Sates and Europe along with plugin and start production quickly makes industrial parks in Ethiopia preferable by the investors.
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