FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Zimbabwe’s President Mnangagwa Sees Ethiopia as a Positive Development Model

Feb. 14, 2019 (EIRNS)—Deeply impressed with his delegation’s tour of Ethiopia’s multimillion-dollar industrial parks on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, on Feb. 11, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa vowed this was the path Zimbabwe must follow to ensure vibrant economic growth and employment creation. The tour was meant to see how Zimbabwe could derive beneficial experiences from the industrial parks concept. Zimbabwe is in the process of establishing Special Economic Zones across the country similar to those of Ethiopia.

Mnangagwa, First Lady Amai Auxillia Mnangagwa, and other government officials arrived on Feb. 8 in Ethiopia, which was hosting the African Union General Assembly on Feb. 10-11.

Following his tour, Mnangagwa told reporters that,

“The history is that the government of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia built these factory shells and then invited companies in the textile sector from India to come and do business here. As a result of that, it’s now about six years old. This entity alone [Jay Jay Textiles] employs in excess of 4,000 workers but they have other places where they have similar factories having 45,000 employees in the past five years working in these shells built by the government. I think this is the way to go. They have created employment for the youth and particularly women. You can see inside there that the young girls and women are working. The market, we have been briefed, are top-end markets in the U.S.A. It is an eye opener that we also in Zimbabwe have the intention of creating economic zones, economic parks of this nature and that is the way. It creates employment. It brings technology. It brings you skills into the country. This is the way to go,”

Harare’s The Herald quoted him as saying.