Ethiopian Informer
ADDIS ABABA: September 9 (EI) — Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, on Monday unveiled a new economic initiative, dubbed Homegrown Economic Reform, that would transform Ethiopia into an “icon of prosperity” in Africa by 2030.
Abiy, unveiling the new blueprint on Monday, also briefed development partners and the diplomatic
The Ethiopian premier, who highlighted some of the key milestones that were achieved in shifting the country’s economic landscape, stressed that the vision of the homegrown economic reforms agenda is “to propel Ethiopia to become the African icon of prosperity by 2030.”
Abiy also called on his government’s development partners to continue exerting concerted efforts and strengthen their support towards the realization of the ambitious development targets that are stipulated under the new economic reform platform.
According to Abiy, the new homegrown economic reform mainly aims to drive the Ethiopian government’s aspiration towards the country’s prosperity, with particular emphasis given to major economic sectors that have vital significance in building sustainable economic growth.
Last week, the Ethiopian government had also emphasized that the newly introduced comprehensive economic reforms would help ease the East African country’s pressing foreign currency shortage.
“We have now designed a comprehensive reform strategy to sustain and advance the economic growth and development in the country,” Ahmed Shide, Ethiopia’s Finance Minister, told reporters last week.
“Foreign exchange is one of the major bottlenecks currently, and we are working comprehensively to address that,” Ahmed said, adding “the privatization we are embarking on will contribute significantly to that. It will bring significant foreign exchange.”
The finance minister also said that as part of ongoing measures to ease foreign currency shortage, the Ethiopian government is also working on ways of broadening the remittance flow into Ethiopia from various parts of the world.
Yinager Dessie, Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia, also noted that low productivity in the agriculture sector, particularly in the export items, has not been to the expected level.
“Similarly, export items from the industrial sector have not increased both in type and volume, thus inhibiting the fulfillment of the national target for gaining foreign exchange from the two sectors,” Yinager said.
Ethiopia’s ongoing economic sector reforms mainly aspire to realize sustainable economic growth together with strong private sector engagement in various development projects.
