Ethiopia launches online investment guide to stimulate FDI
Investors hoping to explore one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies can now acquire easy access to reliable and up-to-date information with a new online investment guide (iGuide) to Ethiopia.
Launched on 19th December at the headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA), the new iGuide will highlight areas for reform in the country’s investment environment helping the government understand investor needs.
“The investment guide is about making relevant, up-to-date content available to existing and potential investors,” said Fitsum Arega, Ethiopia’s then Investment Commissioner, adding, “It should help us bridge the gap between foreign investors and small and medium enterprises.”
The website covers topics such as the rules and procedures for starting a business, taxes, acquisition of land, local skills and wage expectations, quality of infrastructure, investor rights and business sectors with exceptionally high investment potential.
Those who wish to obtain more detailed information can consult newly uploaded documents, such as relevant laws and extensive feedback collected among investors on the ground.
Officials at the Ethiopia Investment Commission developed the guide’s content, designed to make the information easily updateable.
“The guides help countries attract better quality and greener foreign investment and provide investors with information that is otherwise scattered across many different websites or outright not available,” UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Isabelle Durant said at the launch.
At the launch, ECA Executive Secretary Vera Songwe said the online guide was a “demonstration of taking Africa to the digital age”.
To date, UNCTAD has produced 16 investment guides in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, of which seven, including Ethiopia, have been created in partnership with the Economic Commission for Africa. UNCTAD’s data shows that countries benefiting from investment guides have a stronger foreign direct investment performance when compared to the benchmark trends for all developing countries.
The iGuide for Ethiopia can be accessed on http://www.theiguides.org/ethiopia
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