A delegation led by the governor of Guangdong Province Zhu Xiao Dan has met with top government officials.
The companies who accompanied the governor have agreed to invest in the Huajian Group Industry Park that came from Guangdong, which is the leading GDP contributor for China. Currently the construction of the industrial park is being undertaken by the Chinese contractor CCCC and will accommodate up to 50,000 employees.
The light manufacturing industrial park now has 11 enterprises that signed deals on Thursday September 1 at a conference held at the Hilton Addis Ababa. The park located in the south western outskirts of Addis Ababa will focus on shoe manufacturing and target the export market, Arkebe Oqubay (PhD), Special Advisor to the Prime Minister with a ministerial portfolio.
The park will include other production sectors in the next phases. Huajian is one of the top three shoe producers in the world. The company has invested in Ethiopia since 2011 at the Eastern Industry Zone. Its own industrial park may consume USD 2.2 billion and will be located around Lebu area with 138 hectares of land.
A business cooperation deal was also signed between different stakeholders at the conference. The province is also known for building and furnishing material, which is highly imported in Ethiopia.
“To invest in this sector companies want to be here,” he said.
The industry park with the building material and home furnishings is also being constructed by CCCC at Arerti, Menjar in the Amhara Region.
The products from building and home furnishings are expected to alleviate the high hard currency allocation for imports. “Except for cement we are dependent on the import items,” Arkebe said. Ceramic industries and other building inputs in addition with home furnishing will be the major products in the Arerti industry park.
Currently the government has targeted to expand industrial parks in different parts of the country. Recently it inaugurated a huge park at Hawassa. (Capital)
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