HAWASSA :
Peter Wan is smiling from ear to ear. The 50-year-old walks past huge
warehouses, where dozens of Ethiopians are busy working on spinning and
thread-dyeing machines. “We are in the production test stage,” he says, at the
Chinese factory of JP Textile at the entrance of the industrial park of
Hawassa, some 270 kilometers south of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
Soon, the labor force will transform the thread imported from China into cloth
fabric, explains Wan. Then this fabric will be shaped into “Made in Ethiopia”
shirts for brands such as Calvin Klein or Tommy Hilfiger, so they can be
exported to wealthy customers in Europe and the United States. This park, which
was built by the Chinese in just nine months, is officially operational. But it
has not yet started to export garments.
The $260 million project is proof of the quick industrialization of Ethiopia.
China, its first trade partner, is leading this process: whether it''s
construction, transportation, or telecommunications, Beijing has invested in
all sectors in this Horn of Africa country, the continent''s second most
populous nation with nearly a 100 million inhabitants. China has also built
a new railway between Addis Ababa and Djibouti.
Deprived of free access to the sea since neighboring Eritrea
became independent in 1993, Ethiopia needs Djibouti, a small country through
which it routes 95% of its exports. China is also betting on this area to be an
important part of its "new silk roads” project.
Through the Suez Canal, transportation to Europe from Djibouti only takes a
couple of days. The same goes for central Asia, through the Indian Ocean. Such
ambitious plans require infrastructure to make the trade of goods easier. China
is ahead in Ethiopia, where it has already built roads, a highway, and where
its influence is doubtless.
All in all, the 279 Chinese companies operating in Ethiopia registered more
than $550 million in financial capital over the past five years. In 20 years,
Chinese investments have totaled more than $4 billion and are said to have
created 111,000 jobs.A mainly farming country, Ethiopia wants to become the
“industrial hub” of Africa. To become a middle-income country by 2025, Addis
Ababa is strictly applying the second phase of its growth and development plan
(GTPII) with Beijing''s unfailing support.
For now, the manufacturing sector only represents 5% of the country’s GDP. On
July 8, top Ethiopian authorities and foreign investors inaugurated with great
pomp the industrial park of Kombolcha, 380 kilometers north of the capital. The
following day, it was the inauguration of another park, this time in Mekele,
760 kilometers north of Addis Ababa. The Chinese want to make the most of
Ethiopian industries such as textile and clothing, which should soon turn the
country into a new Bangladesh. "Even better than Bangladesh,” says Yang
Nan, the president of JP Textile.
Yang Nan knows what he’s talking about. The Wuxi Jinmao Foreign Trade Company,
where he chairs the executive board, has been producing fabric in Bangladesh
for 12 years. Only five months after his first trip to Ethiopia, he decided to
open branches here: JP Textile now stands in Hawassa and C&H Garment is
housed in Bole Lemi, another industrial park, near Addis Ababa.
“Ethiopia has two advantages,” he says. On the one hand, he says, there is a
profusion of cheap energy harvested from hydroelectric projects across the
country. On the other, there''s the possibility of benefiting from tax exemptions
thanks to the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
Source: Allafrica.com Wednesday, 13 September 2017