Ethiopia woos textile companies to invest

Ethiopia, one of the largest recipent of FDI in textiles globally, today invited textile companies from India to invest in African country saying it offered cheap power and lower labour costs.
The country had seen investments from Indian firms in the past and was currently focussing on bringing more companies, Ethiopian State Minister of Industry Bogale Feleke said.
He was addressing a workshop on cotton textile and export organised by the Southern India Mills Association organised here, a major textile centre in the country.
"We are seeing good interest. Ethiopia, which has seen major investments from Indian, Chinese and Turkish firms, is targeting 30 billion Dollars in foreign exchange earnings from the textiles sector by 2030," he said.

Ethiopia was the second largest recipient of Foreign Direct Investment in textiles globally after Vietnam.
It had attracted 3.2 billion dollars till 2016, said Sileshi Lemma, Director General, Ethiopina textile Industry Development Institute.

To attract investments, Ethiopia was offering cheaper power and lower labour costs compared to India, he said.
While power costs three cents per unit (around Rs two), labour costs were only 60 dollars (Rs 3,900) per month in the African country, Lemma said.
Stating that the country had an installed power capacity of 4,600 mw, being generated almost entirely from hydel units, he said that it was aiming to increase the capacity to 17,100 mw by 2025.

Besides Ethiopia was aiming to increase the area under cotton cultivation from the present six lakh hectares, Feleke said.
"We have not yet utilised our potential in cotton production and about 3 million hectares can be made available for cotton cultivation," he said.