The Amhara National Regional State (ANRS) not only has a favorable climate and good soils but also lots of facilities for investors like an international airstrip, a state-of-the-art cargo center and fast developing infrastructures. The region has many untapped investment potentials and opportunities which have not yet been explored. If these opportunities properly explored, they have the potential to create more jobs, expand foreign exchange earnings, substitute imported goods, and increase the economy capacity of the region.
In the region over the past 10 years, 17,168 investors, who registered
over 632 billion birr, took
investment licenses. Among those, 2,677 investor’s license (15% from of the
total number of investors, which
could have created jobs for 258,935 individuals), have been revoked
due to various reasons.
Out of the 17,168 licensed investors, 33% were in the manufacturing
sector which is one of the priority
sectors of the Government, 23% in the agricultural sector,
22% in the finance and insurance
sectors, and 15% in the hotel and tourism
sectors.
It can be clearly seen that the flow of investment in the past decade has
been growing. But the potential of some sectors,
such as the mining sector,
still seems untapped.
A review of the trend of investment flow in to the ANRS for the past few decades shows that the investment activities in the region were very weak and insignificant in the years before the Ethiopian Millennium 2008 GC. However, since the millennium, the government's focus to attract investment has been steadily improving due to the initiative of local investors and the diaspora. The region also started developing industrial villages which were transferred to investors in order to promote investment into the region.
Once an investor takes out Investment License,
details of investment incentives in the form of tax and customs
duty privilege could be found out by approaching the Ethiopian Customs and
Revenue Authority. As noted on the investment
code of 2002 (as amended in 2003) and Council of Ministers
Regulation 2003 (as amended in 2008) investors interested in the
agriculture and agro-processing export sector
will have:
