A high-level committee chaired by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) has come online with the main aim of creating more jobs in the industry sector.

The National Investment & Job Creation Steering Committee, which has the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, ministers, presidents of regional states and city administrations, and heads of two federal agencies as members, was officially launched on August 7, 2019. It aims to draw foreign direct investment and create three million jobs.

Having 27 members, the committee targets to create 1.1 million of the jobs in the industrial sector, one million in the agricultural sector and the remaining 950,000 in the service sector.

Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen, Teklewold Atnafu and Dessie Dalke, advisors at the Prime Minister's Office, are also among the members of the committee. Ministers of Mines & Petroleum; Trade & Industry; Peace; Agriculture; Culture & Tourism; Labor & Social Affairs and Innovation & Technology are also the members ofthe committee.Commissioners of the Ethiopian Investment Commission and Job Creation Commission are coordinators of the Committee.

Focusing on creating ''sustainable and decent jobs,'' the Committee will be meeting every two months for updates while all of the member institutions will be sending reports to the two coordinators monthly.

The committee arrived on the scene as an add-on to the National Ease of Doing Business Steering Committee, which was formed six months ago with the main aim of relaxing the business climate in the country. The committee introduced reforms from relaxing the tax administration to the business license registration systems.

The outcomes of the reforms made the government upgrade its focus to employment and investment, according to Prime Minister Abiy.

Under the main committee, there are three sub-committees: Doing Business Reform, chaired by Fetleworq G. Egziabher, the minister of Trade & Industry; Job Creation that will be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Demeke; and a Sub-committee for investment areas that requires special attention.

The third sub-committee, which is chaired by Umer Hussien, minister of Agriculture, has four areas under it including agriculture, mining, tourism and technology.

"Even though we have all the resources like labour and land," said Prime Minister Abiy, "we weren't able to attract sufficient amounts of investment."

This time the government aims at attracting foreign investment companies that come to the country with fresh capital and create sustainable jobs, according to Abiy.

Out of the three million jobs, irrigation and horticulture are expected to create the highest number of jobs, accounting for half a million. Construction and manufacturing follow with 311,651 and 302,269 jobs, respectively.

Divided by regional states, the largest tally of jobs are planned to be created in Oromia Regional State, accounting for 1.1 million jobs, while 700,000 and 600,000 jobs are expected to be created in Amhara and Southern Nations, Nationalities & Peoples’ regional states, respectively. The government also aims at creating a quarter of a million jobs in the capital.

Alemayehu Geda (Prof.), a macroeconomist and lecturer at Addis Abeba University who conducted an assessment on general employment last year, views the plan as very specific and detailed. He also appreciates it for creating jobs that will have a great impact on the economy, including lifting the people from poverty.

"But it has fundamental problems when it comes to the feasibility of the plan," said Alemayehu, who is concerned with the source of the financing for the execution of the plan.

Looking at the inflexibility of the economy and checking the labour market profile, bringing a radical and diversified change to make the industrial sector the highest employer is very difficult, according to Alemayehu, who says that more jobs are created in the small and micro business level.