Ethiopian Informer
ADDIS ABABA: December 24 (EI) — The Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) has hailed the Chinese-built Ethiopia-Djibouti railway for facilitating exports from industrial parks as Ethiopia earned more than 47 million U.S. dollars in export value from public and private industrial parks during the first quarter of the Ethiopian fiscal year that started on July 8.
Ethiopia generated the reported about 47.4 million U.S. dollars in exports from nine public and private industrial parks that are operational across the country during the first quarter of the Ethiopian 2019-2020 fiscal year that started on July 8, Neway Tedla, Planning and Evaluation Director at the EIC, said on Thursday.
Figures from the Ethiopian Investment Commission also show that the stated amount of export earning has accounted for 71 percent of the initial target.
The 47.4 million U.S. dollars quarterly exports revenue is also said to have an 88 percent increase as compared to the same period of the previous Ethiopia fiscal year, according to Tedla.
Hana Arayaselassie, Deputy EIC Commissioner, also recently told journalists that the Ethiopia-Djibouti electrified rail line, which commenced operations in January 2018, has contributed to boosting landlocked Ethiopia’s export ambitions, by transporting speedily and efficiently cargo from industrial parks in mainland Ethiopia to ports in Djibouti.
Nine of the industrial parks are located in close proximity to the 752-kms Ethiopia-Djibouti electrified rail line, which has been hailed for boosting Ethiopia’s foreign trade by facilitating the country’s export-import endeavor.
The Ethiopia-Djibouti railway, which was jointly built by the China Railway Group Limited (CREC) and the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), is presently managed by experts drawn from the two Chinese companies for a period of six years.
With Ethiopia attracting large-scale investment in the export-oriented manufacturing sector, especially from Chinese firms, the country sees improving the efficiency and speed of the logistics sector as key to meeting national manufacturing revenue goals in the export sector.
Ethiopia is constructing or has commissioned around 12 industrial parks across the country, part of a broad economic strategy to make the country a light manufacturing hub in Africa by 2025.
The Chinese construction-giant CCECC has been also a major partner of the Ethiopian government in the construction of large-scale industrial parks across the country, including the Hawassa, Bahir Dar, Adama, Kombolcha and Dire Dawa industrial parks.
