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Transcript/Script(NARRATOR))
The Ethiopian government hoped that this industrial park — opened in 2016 with the potential to create 60,000 jobs — would help the country move from an agricultural to a manufacturing economy, and that the companies would bring high-tech work.
Kalkidan Asrat, a logistics manager, shared those dreams.
((Kalkidan Asrat, Nasa Garment Logistics Manager (in Amharic, 25 secs)))
“Wondo Genet, my birthplace, is a small town. My family worked in agriculture for a living. They were subsistence farmers. As I completed my education, I joined the industrial park, where I managed to improve my life.”
((NARRATOR))
There are ten other industrial parks like Hawassa spread across Ethiopia.
The government has said it hoped to make Ethiopia a lower-middle income country by 2025, with manufacturing playing a big part. But that is now looking less likely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, a lack of foreign currency in the country, and conflict and human rights abuses.
((Patrick Heinisch, Emerging Markets Economist)) (in English, 32 secs))) ((Zoom))
"The most severe hit to the industrial parks is from the loss of access to AGOA. One week after the announcement, the first company announced they would retreat from the Ethiopian market; they sold their factories in Ethiopia. This has been followed by other companies."
((NARRATOR))
The African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, passed in the U.S in 2000 to aid development in sub-Saharan Africa, gave Ethiopia duty-free access to the U.S. market for several products.
With Ethiopian wages much lower than in China, a country synonymous with manufacturing, and AGOA making it cheaper to import goods to the U.S., many international manufacturing companies set up in Hawassa’s industrial sheds.
On January 1st, 2022, however, the U.S. withdrew Ethiopia’s access to AGOA due to “gross violations of human rights.”
Rights groups have accused the Ethiopian government and its aligned military forces of large-scale human abuses, including ethnic cleansing, against Tigrayans during the country’s near two-year conflict.
Tigrayan forces have also been accused of abuses.
35,000 people worked at Hawassa, but in June, one firm laid off 3,000 workers and others laid off hundreds.
One factory owner in Hawassa says the country is struggling to adapt.
((Raghavendra Pattar, Nasa Garment CEO (in English, 28 secs)))
"We are forging towards a new market, but it will take more time to roll up the market again, so that’s why we are suffering a lot. The country is suffering because of foreign currency availability in the country today. They also need support from other countries, big countries, like America.”
((NARRATOR))
The deputy general manager of the park said the withdrawal of AGOA was causing more problems than the pandemic or inflation.
((Belante Tebikew, Hawassa Industrial Park (in English, 28 secs)))
"So there are some, as I told you, reductions on orders, because they have been enjoying customs duty duty-free privileges in the American markets.
((NARRATOR))
In another bad sign for the country’s economy, fighting between governments and Tigrayan rebel forces broke out again in late August after a five-month ceasefire.
((Henry Wilkins, for VOA News, Hawassa, Ethiopia))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Embargo DateSeptember 13, 2022 10:21 EDT
BylineHenry Wilkins
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
