Two industrial parks in Amhara Regional State built for close to two billion Birr are expected to become operational in two months.

Bahir Dar and Debre Berhan industrial parks, each with eight sheds under construction since 2016, lie on 2,000ha and 1,000ha, respectively. The parks were planned and designed to accommodate companies engaged in textile, apparel and agro-processing industrial activities.

Located 557Km from the capital, Bahir Dar Industrial Park, with an estimated cost of a little over 900 million Br, is being built by China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), a company established in 1979 that engages in railway, highway, bridge and municipal projects.

The project is overseen and supervised by MH Engineering Plc, a company established in 1997 that is also currently supervising the construction of Addis Abeba National Stadium and consulted on Bole Lemi Industrial Park.

The Debre Berhan Industrial Park, costing more than one billion Br, is being built by another Chinese firm, China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), a 14-year-old company that has been engaged in the construction of roads, railways, industrial parks and the headquarters of United Bank in Ethiopia. MH Engineering Plc also consults on the project.

The Bahir Dar Industrial Park was financed directly by the Ethiopian Government, while the Debre Berhan Industrial Park was funded by selling one billion dollars in Eurobonds in 2014.

When fully operational, Bahir Dar and Debre Berhan industrial parks will create 8,000 and 7,000 jobs opportunities, respectively, according to Tilahun Gemechu, director of corporate planning and management information systems at the Industrial Parks Development Corporation.

The production capacity of the two industrial parks will depend on the investors who take over the sheds. An estimate as to how many companies the two parks will accommodate is also unknown, according to Tilahun.