Chinese investors are to lease an Industrial Park from the Dire Dawa City Administration which will be the second lease of an industrial area given to Chinese firms. Ibrahim Yusuf, city manager of Dire Dawa City Administration, told Capital that Dire Dawa, one of the two chartered cities directly accountable to the federal government, has arranged for 30 hectares of land in the industrial zone area, that is around Melka Jebdu, approximately 15 km far from Dire Dawa city, for Chinese investment.

The city administration prepared 100 hectares of industrial land four years ago, which included a lot of infrastructure needed for the industry.
Since then several local and foreign based investors have invested in the area, and some of them have even started activities. The Turkish textile industry and the Chinese cement factory are some of the biggest investments in the zone.

Currently, the city administration has arranged for the Industrial Park to be given due attention to the Chinese investors who wish to participate in various sectors, mainly in textile and related industries.

Dire Dawa, located at a distance of 330 km from the port of Djibouti is attracting more investors due to its closeness to the port, which is the main point of access for international trade for the country.

In the past week PM Meles Zenawi discussed such matters with Chinese potential investors when he visited China.

During the discussions the PM held with Chinese potential investors, he promised them that the park in Dire Dawa will transfer to a low lease price.
Chinese investors already have an industry park in Dukem, 30km east of Addis Ababa. The Chinese industrial park shall be the third foreign investment park in Ethiopia after Turkey and Egypt.

The Chinese industrial park at Dire Dawa will be the first to be situated a significant distance from the capital, 515km southeast of Addis Ababa.

Currently, there are about 316 Chinese investment projects which are fully or semi-operational in Ethiopia and over 900 projects are in pre-implementation phase.
The Ethiopian government has much recorded interest in increasing Chinese investment and integrating it into the five year growth plan.

Source: CapitalEthiopia