Ethiopia has overtaken Kenya as Eastern Africa’s regional economic giant in recent years. Investors are bullish about the country’s prospects over the next decade and seem willing to bet that its economic take-off will not long be delayed for much longer. Ethiopia has attracted significant levels of Western and Chinese investors, with the secret of its success being government-led public spending on infrastructure and strong local demand for goods and services. Read more. Source | Ethiopian Herald

Economic dynamism has lifted eastern Africa’s growth despite harsh political climate witnessed in Kenya and Ethiopia, the biggest contributors to the region’s gross domestic product (GDP). A report by a UK-based accountant’s body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), said the regional powerhouses had political problems in the year without which their economic performance would have been better. Read more. Source | Business Daily

President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Dr. Mulatu Teshome said Ethiopia has become the largest recipient of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa. The seventh International Conference on Pulses, Oilseeds and Spices was launched here yesterday with the theme ‘Africa the future pulse and oil seeds supply’. Speaking on the occasion, President Mulatu indicated that most recent The United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report showed that FDI flow to Ethiopia increased by 46 percent this year to reach 3.2 billion USD despite the decline in interest throughout the rest of Africa. Read more. Source | Ethiopian Herald

Ethiopia has come up with new export reform to boost foreign exchange earnings from primary export commodities. The reform is set to introduce value addition and new marketing system, improve productivity and reduce transaction cost. The country has been and still is highly dependent on primary agricultural exports for foreign exchange earnings. Despite having huge potential, absence of value addition and modern marketing system in coffee exports, among others, has forced the nation to lose large amount of foreign currency. Read more. Source | Ethioipan Herald

Professor Tasew Woldehana has been teaching Economics in Addis Ababa University for the last 17 years. He earned his PhD from the Netherlands Wageningen University. Professor Tasew has been engaged in extensive research undertaking related to poverty since 1992 EC. More importantly, he has been involved since 1992 EC in the second poverty analysis surveys conducted in five years interval. Recently, the fifth survey has been released. Read more. Source | Ethiopian Herald

Ethiopia is the second most cotton producing nations in Africa in terms of more factory consumption. Since the last couple of years, Ethiopia has become an attractive and highly potential destination for cotton and textile investors. In fact, the textile and garment manufacturing sector is one of the key industrial sectors, which is prioritized by the government and expected to contribute to the actualization of country's GTP II goals. In GTP II, the country has planned to increase cotton output from the land productivity level of 15 quintals/ha in 2015 to 28 quintals/ha in 2020. In the long-term, Ethiopia has set out to become self sufficient in lint cotton supply. Read more. Source | Ethiopian Herald

The government of Ethiopia is unwavering in its commitment to making the country the leading manufacturing hub in Africa by 2025. Development of world class, specialized, vertically integrated, export driven and competitive industrial parks is the central driver and catalyst of the Vision. Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP) embodies the full execution of these principles, and hence represents a blueprint that guides the development of similar parks in other parts of the country.Besides the economic advantage, the government needs industrial parks like HIP to reduce unemployment rate. For instance, in the HIP alone, nearly 10,000 employees are currently working in various fields, of which the majority are young women. Read more. Source | Ethiopian Herald

As to the second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) , the textile and garment sector is expected to generate 779 million USD at the end of the plan time. The performance of the sector is improving. For instance, the sector had generated over 89.3 million USD in 2009 EC. Though last year performance surpassed the previous year by 11.3 million USD, it is lower than the budget year target. The reasons behind for the low performance is attributed to unable to satisfy the international market, the managerial and technical capacity limitations of potential industries, and delay in investment projects as well as related reasons. Read more. Source | Ethiopian Herald