Addis Ababa, June 13, 2022 (FBC) – Ethiopia and Italy have signed a concessional loan agreement amounting to 22 million euros.
The allocated finance will be used to support the development of the Bulbula, Bure, Yirgalem, and Ba’eker Integrated Agro-Industrial Parks (IAIPs) and the proximity of Rural Transformation Centres (RTCs), to create jobs in the rural areas of the country, increase farmers’ incomes, generate export revenues, substitute imports of agro-processed goods and contribute to economic growth and structural transformation.
The main activities to be performed by the intervention are strengthening the capacities of the National and Regional Industrial Park Development Corporations, strengthening the organizational and the business capacities of farmers’ organizations and private investors, creating linkages between farmers’ organizations and agro- processors through innovative contractual arrangements (contract farming, supply contracts, etc.), Constructing and equipping of centers of excellence in the IAIPs and facilitating credit for equipment for Small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises in the selected value chains.
The intervention will improve the involvement of private sectors in the Integrated Agro-Industrial Parks and Rural Transformation Centers, and their competitiveness in the internal and international market, which is in line with the Home- Grown Economic Reform agenda and the 10 years development plan of Ethiopia.
The loan agreement was signed by Ahmed Shide, Minister of Finance and Luigi Di MAIO, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy on behalf of Ethiopia and Italy respectively.