German Development Cooperation (GIZ) has expressed its continued commitment to support investors who are keen on engaging in Industrial Parks of Ethiopia and its inclusive development.
Program Manager for Special Initiative Job Creation and Sustainable Program at GIZ, Ulrich Plein told ENA that GIZ is working with IPDO, Ethiopian Investment Commission to improve industrial parks development.
“We are working on Industrial Parks Development Corporation and industrial parks. We also try to support investors to improve their performance by providing capacity building,” he underscored.
GIZ provides assistance for the private sector development in Ethiopia and creating opportunities for local investors to partner with foreign companies.
“We are supporting the local industries working with small enterprises and trying to link them to the activities which are going in the parks,” he added.
Moreover, he stated that this program is attracting investors from Europe and mainly from Germany to invest in the industry sector.
“We are currently having talks with several German companies that are highly interested to invest in Ethiopia,” he said, adding that “GIZ will support them once they have decided to invest here in Ethiopia.”
Praising the commitment of government in developing industrial parks, he said “the county has invested a lot of money and done a great job by attracting various investors from abroad.”
“We believe that this is very important development for the country and we have seen that the government is very eager to scale up this development,” he added.
Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) CEO, Lilise Neme for her part applauded the efforts of GIZ in supporting industrial parks development in Ethiopia through capacity building and supporting the private sector.
Ethiopia has 12 industrial parks, of which seven of them are operational as the remaining parks will be fully finalized this year.
The industrial parks which are already in operation have managed to create jobs for about 50,000 permanent and 35,000 temporary employees, it was indicated./ENAnews