The Ethiopian Industrial park development corporation presented the half year report for the 2021/22 fiscal year at a press-conference held today at Intercontinental hotel. The corporation reported that appreciable results were recorded despite major impeding factors such as the northern Ethiopia conflict, power outages and shortage of cement which limited the progress of factory shade constructions in industrial parks.
One of the major developments in the past 6 months was the construction of Semera industrial park which is now at 96.8% completion increasing by a 2.8% from last year. The IPDC was also able to create 52% more jobs than the same previous time period. A total of 33,371 jobs have been created since the parks begun operation in 2014.
In an attempt to substitute imported products, IPDC’s parks were able to substitute 80 million USD worth of products surpassing the target set at 55 million USD. Some of the new products produced during the same the 6 month period are packaging products, dyes, leather products, and stationery supplies. With a 25% increase from last year’s revenue, the corporation secured 104,428,447 USD in revenues. Since their inception in 2014 the industrial parks under the IPDC were able to garner a total of 850 million USD in foreign currency aiding the country in its effort to obtain much needed foreign currency.
As of now a total of 158 shades are occupied in the parks representing 97% of the available shades. The parks have also employed the ZLDE waste treatment technology to treat and reuse effluent water. In their efforts to fulfill social responsibilities and put their mark on the Green legacy of Ethiopia workers of the industrial parks have been engaged in blood donation and a 1.4 million birr donation to the FDRE Defense Force’s national cause in the northern Ethiopia conflict. Also, a total of 785,000 plants have been planted in response to the Green legacy national call by PM Abiy Ahmed.
The corporation’s parks have been hit by the exclusion of Ethiopia from the AGOA but while the government of Ethiopia is in talks with the US to rescind the decision, studies are being conducted of the part of the GoE to find alternative markets. Since most companies in the industrial parks are international firms having their own established markets abroad, the impact of AGOA will be insignificant. Additionally, China has also brandished an opportunity act that is similar with the AGOA for agro industries. These mitigating factors are assisting the industrial parks achieve their targets and even move beyond.
