Chinese Firm Makes Deal to Operate Jimma Industrial Park

A Chinese firm, Huajian Dongguan Hua Bao Shoes Co Ltd, has fully leased out an industrial park built in Jimma, Oromia Regional State.

A memorandum of understanding was signed today by Huarong Zhang, president of the firm, and Lelise Nemie, CEO of the Ethiopian Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC), to become the sole lessee of Jimma Industrial Park.

The Park was inaugurated last December by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) alongside the presidents of Djibouti and Sudan. Lying on 75ha of land, the Park was constructed by China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) with an investment of 61 million dollars.

Along with operating the Park, Huajian will set up coffee processing plants on 45ha of land and build additional sheds to lease to other investors. The company has agreed to build a vocational training centre that will train workers to be hired in the Park.

The Park already has nine finished sheds. Upon being fully operational, it is expected to create 15,000 jobs. Jimma, 350Km west of the capital, is the eighth industrial park among the 11 the Corporation has been undertaking at an estimated cost of 30 billion Br.

EDITORS NOTE: The above story has been corrected from its initial version, which incorrectly stated that the Chinese firm has taken a management contract and mentioned Abebe Abebayehu, commissioner of the Ethiopian Investment Commission. In both cases the references were inaccurate. Neither will the Chinese firm cultivate coffee, but rather it will be building a processing plant. We regret the errors and apologise for the inconvenience.