Incentives will be given to exporters that engage in the export sector in order to improve the low performance of the sector, Ministry of Industry said.
Officials of the ministry held a consultative forum on the performance of the past nine months with members of the public wing.
Industry Minister Ahmed Abitew said on the occasion among the incentives to given include capacity building to employees, training to production and management members. This could be useful and a project is designed to realize it, he added.
Upon completion of the project, the competitiveness of companies will grow and support will also be extended to specific companies.
As the world market is fluid, agreement is reached with stakeholders to boost competitiveness that could withstand this characteristic and build technological capacity, according to the minister.
The low performance of the manufacturing sector during the past nine months is attributable to the focus of businesspersons on local market and the delay in construction of new factories, it was indicated.
To solve the obstacles that hamper investors from engaging in the manufacturing sector, the government has reduced the equity loan investors have to make from 30 percent to 25 percent, and the warehouses they built to be taken as collateral, the minister stated.
The ministry wants local investors to operate in the Hawassa Industrial Park where foreign investors are actively engaged since there would be no transfer of knowledge and capacity building without the involvement of the local businesspersons.
In a paper he presented on Agro-industry Park at the meeting, Industry State Minister Mebrahtu Meles said integrated agricultural processing parks will be built in four regional states.
The parks will be built in Oromia, Amhara, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples, and Tigray states.
The integrated parks are going to be constructed by ministries of Industry, Agriculture and Natural Resources as well as Animal and Fish Resources Development, according to the state minister.
The parks are expected to be completed within four years. Following the establishment of four parks, 17 development zones will be identified for development.
Feasibility study for the parks is finalized and construction will begin next Ethiopian year, it was learned. The study will benefit areas within 100 kilometers radius of the parks.
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