Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn (left) warmly greeting Debretsion Gebremichael (PhD) (right), minister of Communication & Information Technology (MCIT), and Melese Alemu (centre) deputy chief administrator & head of the Public Service & Human Resource Development Bureau of Southern Nations, Nationalities & Peoples’ Regional State (SNNPR) at the grand opening ceremony of the Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP) on June 20, 2017.
The industrial park, which is a benchmark of the government’s efforts to increase large scale manufacturing in the country with the purpose of boosting export revenues and job opportunities, has helped the government to accumulate relevant experience that will be utilised in building other industrial parks, according to Hailemariam. HIP, with its 37 completed manufacturing sheds in three different sizes, is a specialised park in textile and garment production that is intended to reach the global market. Currently, operational at its phase-I, HIP aims to host 60,000 workers and earn one billion dollars annually when the remaining two phases are accomplished.
The industrial park, occupied mainly by major international textile and apparel manufacturing companies, includes residential quarters for about 1,000 expatriates, its own FM radio and police station, clinic, fire and emergency service centres, zero liquid discharge (ZLD) facility, and a one-stop shop (OSS). While the government is currently working to develop more industrial parks in different parts of the country, HIP has already moved into revaluing its administrative issues.
At the CEO’s Forum that followed the grand opening ceremony, Arkebe Oqubay (PhD), special adviser to the Prime Minister with a ministerial portfolio and chairman of the Investment Commission Board Office, suggested that the government agencies responsible for delivering services quickly address problems relating to the investment plants in the park.
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