ADDIS ABABA,  — Policy measures taken by the Ethiopian government have enabled the country to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) every year, according to the Ethiopian Investment Commission.

The policy measures, combined with other initiatives, have helped to attract up to 800 projects every year on average, says Getahun Ngash, the director of public relations at the Commission, who notes that the government has modified the country’s investment policy four times over the past two decades, which have helped boost FDI inflows.

He mentioned as an example the recent modification to the policy that requires the allocation of US$200,000 minimum capital for a single project through the National Bank of Ethiopia. According to Getahun, this helped to identify investors who really wanted to implement their projects and also helped them commence operations within a short period.

Previously, projects took up to five years to commence operations, he added, but noted that this timeframe had now been reduced to one to three years.

Following the policy measures of including a single window for services which enabled investors to obtain all the needed services at one place, there had been increases in the numbers of projects receiving licences.

The number of foreign-owned projects which had received licences 20 years ago was three per year on average, but this number had now reached up to 800, he added.

The operating capital of foreign-owned projects had also doubled during this period and reached 1.3 billion USD, Getahun said.

Source: BERNAMA-NNN-ENA