(Business day)The Ethiopian government is collaborating with a Chinese company, Zhejiang Jinda Flax Llc, to establish a textile industrial zone in Addis Ababa.
The Ethiopian Ministry of Industry and the Chinese textile company had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the industrial zone, designated for textile factories in the Bole District in Addis Ababa.
Available data shows that Ethiopia is home to over 230 textile and garment industries with 20 training institutes, employing about 37 per cent of the country’s public sector work force.
According to a copy of the MoU in Addis Ababa on Wednesday, the ministry would sign a formal Investment Agreement with the Chinese company at the end of July when the land needed for the project would be available.
The two parties had agreed to work jointly for the establishment, development and construction of the coming Kingdom Linen Textile Industrial Zone in Ethiopia.
Zhejiang Jinda is a subsidiary of Chinese Kingdom Holdings Limited and produces textile decoration fabrics such as weave fabrics, yarn decorated fabrics and calico (not fully processed fabrics) printing fabrics which are widely applied to clothing sofas, curtains and bed appliances.
The ministry agreed to provide the Chinese company with the Red Line and Coordinates Graph of the land and the soil analysis report of the future site of the industrial zone within two weeks after the agreement.
It said: “within two months of the signing of the Investment Agreement, investors will be granted all the necessary registration documents of the newly formed company in Ethiopia and the certificate of approval of investment of the project.
“Before June 2015, the Chinese company will commence the construction of phase one of the industrial zone project. In addition, the Chinese company will train 50 Ethiopians in industrial park production facilities.“
The ministry said it had allocated a total of 5,130 km in four cities and towns across the country, including Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, a self-administered city about 515 km east of the capital.
Others are Kombolcha, 376 km to the north of the capital in Amhara region; Shillabo, 1,140 km from the capital in the Somali Regional State; Hawassa, 273 km south of the capital in the Southern Region.
11 Chinese companies are already involved in the manufacturing of leather and leather products, textile and garments.
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