Ethiopia not ready to Join Free Trade Area after decade

The Ethiopian manufacturing industry is neither internationally competitive nor shows improvement, a recent study conducted for the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) revealed.

Paid for by the secretariat of COMESA and commissioned by the Ministry of Finance & Economic Development (MoFED), the study was undertaken by a team of experts lead by Daniel Endelila, a representative from Zim Consult, an independent economic and planning consultant based in Zimbabwe, while Bekri Yesuf (PhD), from Bactec Consulting Firm; Tadele Ferede (PhD), economics lecturer at Addis Abeba University (AAU); and Werko Gebeyehu (PhD) also took part in the research.

The findings came at a time when the federal government is keen to steer the industrial sector, whose share of the GDP lags behind at 13.4pc, to take the lead from the agricultural sector as a growth stimulator for the national economy. Although there has been marginal improvement in recent years from 11pc, it, nonetheless, remains one of the least competitive in the world, considering its total factor productivity, technical efficiency, and unit cost indicators.

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