Export earnings from industrial parks reach $930 mln

The Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) announced Thursday that export earnings from industrial parks (IPs), which are under operations reached $930 million as of July 7, 2022.

“We consider it as a significant achievement,” Sandokan Debebe, CEO of IPDC said in a press briefing at the Corporation’s headquarter.

“We have given a due attention to import substitution especially in the last two years,” he said.

“We’ve been giving a special focus to import-substitution mainly after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s (PhD) recent call on to support local companies in a bid to boost local production,” he added.

Close to $161 million import-substituted products were traded in the local market—which is over 96% accomplishment of the plan, according to Sandokan.

Pharmaceuticals, construction materials, chemicals, malt product, IT products and services, sanitary products, textile and garment, industrial packaging and accessories are some of the products sold in the local market after the import-substitution initiative.

“The achievement of the IPs has been tested by lack of supplies or linkage problems,” he said, adding, “These manufacturers are buying 85% of their inputs from other countries.”

“We can’t harness IPs potentials due to lack of inputs in the local market,” he complained.

He further stressed that IPs performance was tottered due the coronavirus pandemic, the wars both in Ethiopia and that of between Russia-Ukraine.

However, he also mentioned the achievements by the IPs.

“Since the IPs started operations commodities worth more than 61 billion Birr were sold to local and export markets,” he said.

Attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), creating jobs and technology transfer are among the major motives behind the establishment of IPs.

“More than 57 thousand jobs were created in 2021/22 fiscal year,” he said. There are 81,000 employees in IPs as of July 7, 2022.

IPDC planned to boost the employees in IPs to 91 thousand jobs in 2022/23 fiscal year excluding Bahir Dar and Mekelle Industrial Parks. “These parks are not in operation due to the impacts of the war,” Sandokan said.