Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Industrial Parks and Free Zones in Ethiopia and Morocco

The Brenthurst Foundation published in January 2019 a discussion paper titled "A Tale of Two Free Zones Learning from Africa's Success" by Greg Mills.

The author concluded that to ensure the free zones are more than just sweatshops, Ethiopia and Morocco have demonstrated that the full package of policy issues must be addressed, including political stability, free trade deals, logistics to and through ports, integrated value chains, and tax and other incentives.

The Hawassa Industrial Park in Ethiopia was built by the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Corporation at a cost of $250 million. It hosts 98 (mostly Chinese) enterprises, employing 14,500 Ethiopians and 1,100 Chinese. Morocco's development of a new port, known as Tangier Med, has three free zones in the port and two industrial parks at the nearby city of Tetouan. It is a $4 billion public investment concentrated on the port, purchase of the land, and construction of 50 kilometers of expressway.