NewsEthiopian Investment Commission registers bamboo as one of the investment opportunities in the country
The Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) recently registered bamboo as one of the sectors identified for investment opportunities in the country. The commission has developed an investment guide to provide information to domestic and foreign investors on the priority investment opportunities of the country.
EIC is an autonomous government institution mandated for carrying out efficient investment administration systems to attract local and international investments to the country through promotion, facilitation, and aftercare services. There are a number of attractive investment opportunities in Ethiopia. The government has identified several investment opportunities, priority sectors, and incitive packages and has developed An Investment Guide to Ethiopia to convey information to potential investors. The investment guide is prepared to serve as an informational primer for investors in Ethiopia, including priority sectors and an overview of different opportunities that investors may wish to consider.
The commission regularly updates its investment guide, and the most recent update of the commission gasetted on its guide is bamboo as a high potential commodity suitable for lucrative investment in Ethiopia. As such, bamboo has now been registered as one of the priority sectors identified in the country for investment opportunities.
Moreover, INBAR’s Dutch-Sino East Africa Bamboo Development Programme has also organised an awareness workshop for relevant stakeholders on the investment potential of bamboo in Ethiopia. The objective of the workshop was to sensitise stakeholders and make them aware of bamboo investment potential and its prospect for value chain development and livelihood improvement in the country. The workshop brought investment experts and supervisors from EIC, and representatives from the Ethiopian Forestry and Climate Change Commission, the Private Sector, and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, to discuss opportunities and challenges of the bamboo sector as an investment opportunity.
The workshop created the venue for participants to know about the potential of bamboo for investment and discuss the way forward on what should be done to foster the sector. For most of the participants from EIC, the workshop was an eye-opener and, the participants reiterated the importance of bamboo for the socio-economic development of the country, with environmental protection and adaptation to climate change. The participants said that it is a good start from the EIC side to list bamboo in the investment guide of the country, and there is a need for a consorted effort to further push the promotion of bamboo as a new investment brand in the country. The workshop was adjourned with an action point to establish a strong bamboo association that would coordinate collaborations on sectoral issues to promote investment and link the private sector with the government.
INBAR’s Dutch-Sino East Africa Bamboo Development Programme is a triangular South-South development cooperation to support livelihood development, food security, and better environmental management by developing robust bamboo value chains and a sustainable bamboo industry in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. It promotes investment in the bamboo sector through enhancing the business and trade environment, knowledge transfer from the global North to the South, and linking local and international actors on bamboo sector development.
