Ethiopia has been doing its best to reduce poverty by creating enabling environment to attract foreign investment here thereby creating job opportunities, boosting exports and diversifying the economy.
This has made Ethiopia one of the preferred destinations of investment in the Horn of Africa as it has strengthened the already flourishing business and trade partnership with foreign and domestic private sectors.
At the opening ceremony of the workshop organized by the U.S. Commercial Service in Ethiopia with the cooperation of the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce yesterday, U.S. Ambassador Haslach said that the show of interest by 10 American companies to invest in Ethiopia in business and trade can be taken as a positive message. She also said that the recent visit to Ethiopia by President Barack Obama further created confidence among US business persons to come here and operate.
According to Haslach, attracting foreign investment needs the fulfillment of certain conditions such as creating an enabling environment, simplifying the business entry formalities, availing reliable power supply, and practicing transparency and competitive surrounding. She further said that, as Ethiopia is a major business partner to the US, the economic ties have been strengthened and the recently prolonged AGOA agreement for another ten years, will help Ethiopian exporters to tap the American market.
The Ethiopian Investment Commission Commissioner Fitsum Arega, on his part said that, the government is doing a remarkable job in terms of creating an enabling environment to attract foreign investment. Fitsum added that the double digit growth achieved during the past 12 years was a result of harnessing both domestic as well as foreign resources.
According to Fitsum, the prevalence of peace, reliable business environment, the expansion of infrastructure and the availability of power supply from renewable energy sources at cheap price, could be an impetus for more inflow of foreign investment. Furthermore, the provision of land with concessional price, tax exemption and tax holidays up to 10 years for factory developers, could help flourish business at minimized risk.
The Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce President Elias Genete, on his part said, that the government has given more emphasis to the manufacturing sector in the second phase of Growth and Transformation Plan which is going to be implemented in the coming five years thereby providing generous incentives for companies investing in the sector.
According to Elias, Ethiopia is in the process of acceding to the International Trade System, the World Trade Organization which implies Ethiopia’s determination to open its doors for world investment and create opportunities.
[allafrica.com]