Ethiopia’s race to develop light industry continued this week as the government signed a contract with a Chinese company to build Bahir Dar Industrial Park at a cost of $60m.
Eight factory sheds will be built in the 75-ha park in the city of Bahir Dar, capital of Amhara State, according to contract signed between the Ethiopian Industrial Parks Development Corporation and the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), reports The Ethiopian Herald.
Work is expected to take just nine months.
Corporation chief executive Sisay Gemechu said the park would focus on value-added agricultural products for export, in compliance with Ethiopia’s national development strategy.
Officials said the park would create 20,000 jobs.
Bolstered by its new railway to the port of Djibouti, the landlocked east African country is determined to move its economy from agriculture to light industry.
In January Ethiopia placed orders for three other industrial parks together worth $650m.
