国际英语资讯:Interview: African countries should pursue long-term devt projects to achieve manufacturin

ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 4 -- Ethiopia and fellow African countries must plan and evaluate long-term development projects in order to transform the African continent towards the next manufacturing excellence, an Ethiopian scholar said on Wednesday.

Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, who served as an economic advisor to the African Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), told Xinhua on Wednesday that both Ethiopia and other African countries "must begin to plan and evaluate projects over a longer time horizon in order to transform the continent into the next factory of the world."

"While being careful not to throw good money after bad, African governments must create strategies that allow for a longer duration of support for their industry if they intend to create world-beating enterprises," Costantinos told Xinhua.

"What is important is to ensure incentives are based on merit, that they are safe- guarded through political cycles, and finally that they have sunset provisions," he added.

The scholar further argued that "the right leadership is needed at all levels and in the various sectors to address what we see as the first order challenges including the crisis of confidence, taking ownership of the industrialization."

According to Costantinos, African governments should also be able to negotiate the development context, including with the external world to advance national interests.

He, however, stressed that good leadership "does not simply appear. It is often a reflection of the society and the institutions that produce the leadership. In this respect, followers (citizenry) have a critical role to play. They must demand more from their leadership to ensure that all members of society have equal opportunities both in political and economic spheres."

ETHIOPIA'S INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY BRINGING RESULTS

Ethiopia has in recent years witnessed a growing foreign investment, in which the country attracted 700 million U.S dollars of foreign direct investments (FDI) during the first quarter of the current 2019-2020 Ethiopian fiscal year that started on July 8, 2019, according to recent figures from the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC).

The reported 700 million U.S dollars of FDI during the stated period, which was obtained for investments from close to 100 new foreign companies being operational in various sectors, is said to account for 70 percent of the Ethiopian government's initial plan, it was noted.

Noting that "the industrial development policy of Ethiopia is bringing results in terms of economic development as well as recording good growth of the industry sector," Costantinos, however, stressed that Ethiopia's industrial development strategy "has not been effective enough in bringing structural change in the economy."

"In order to bring structural change in a manner that allows the industry to take the lead in the economy as desired, and as the period for GTP II (Ethiopia's second five-year Growth and Transformation Plan) implementation begins, Ethiopia still needs to invest on a number of issues for the realization of its goal," the scholar argued.

He also stressed that attention must be given to improve logistics and transport governance by minimizing the cost of bureaucracy to accelerate manufactured good exports, agricultural and mining exports.

"Investment in a more sustainable agricultural productivity that is not wholly dependent on natural weather conditions that looks into economic diversification, specialization and strong economic management to enhance resilience," Costantinos said.

Costantinos, also professor of public policy at the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, further stressed that the east African country should also embrace wider engagement and in-depth consultation with the private sector in industrial policymaking and implementation is necessary to develop the legal and financial system and structure that will create conducive environment for investment.

According to the scholar, intentional and strengthened efforts must be exerted to integrate Ethiopia's trade with regional and global market by building the necessary infrastructure and implementing regional trade liberalization commitments.