Ethiopia inks industrial parks development deals with China and UNIDO
Ethiopia, China and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) have agreed to strengthen collaboration on investment promotion, industrial parks development – including the Adam Industrial Park – and the upgrade of technical and vocational education and training.
In the framework of Ethiopia’s Programme for Country Partnership signed with UNIDO, this agreement will contribute to the Government’s objective of attaining middle-income status by 2025.
The Joint Declaration was signed by Ethiopia’s Ministry of Industry and Ministry of Education, the Department of Commerce of Hunan Province, China, and UNIDO at an investment forum held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The forum took place as part of the ongoing economic and trading cooperation between Ethiopia and the Hunan Province of China, which is also responsible for the establishment of the Ethiopia-Hunan Equipment Manufacturing Cooperation Park in Adama.
The partnership will contribute to accelerating Ethiopia’s economic transformation through the establishment of industrial parks in various parts of the country and by leveraging the necessary investment for the parks themselves. It will also create job opportunities and generate income, thereby contributing to the improvement of the living standards in the country.
Furthermore, vocational training and expertise development will equip the workforce with the skill and knowledge required to find jobs in the companies that will operate within the industrial parks. This will strengthen and build on the Government’s effort to provide skill training to young people in the country.
Through human and institutional capacity building the agreement will also ensure broader participation of youth and women, enhanced productivity in the manufacturing sector and hence, high level global competitiveness of export products. UNIDO’s experience in building capacity of training institutions will ensure that this Joint Declaration can efficiently be translated into actions.
The partnerships and investment that Ethiopia has so far leveraged through the PCP have been key in establishing the state-of-the-art industrial park in Hawassa and launching the four new pilot agro-industrial parks in the country.
Indeed, the Government of Ethiopia is enjoying a wide ranging support from partners in promoting rural industrialization and transforming its economy, including from development financial institutions, UN agencies, the private sector and partner countries. The multi-faceted collaboration between China and Ethiopia in trade and investment is a good example of such partnerships.
The PCP is UNIDO’s innovative and custom-built partnership formula which ensures that beneficiary countries maintain ownership of their development process. It helps leverage financial resources and mobilize partners and technical expertise for larger development impact.
PCP pilots have been successfully launched in Ethiopia, Senegal and Peru and as UNIDO looks ahead to a year of focused actions in 2017, the PCP approach will be expanded to include many more countries.
