Firms in Ethiopia’s Industrial Parks : COVID-19 Impacts, Challenges, and Government Response
The Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a challenge for Ethiopia’s ambitious industrialization agenda focused on export-oriented light manufacturing. This note summarizes results from a survey of firms in Ethiopia’s industrial parks. The dat...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Policy Note |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/382071601445731866/Firms-in-Ethiopia-s-Industrial-Parks-COVID-19-Impacts-Challenges-and-Government-Response http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34573 |
| Summary: | The Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic
poses a challenge for Ethiopia’s ambitious industrialization
agenda focused on export-oriented light manufacturing. This
note summarizes results from a survey of firms in Ethiopia’s
industrial parks. The data suggests that over the past
months, the pandemic has severely impacted firms’ ability to
produce and sell their output. The availability and
affordability of foreign inputs and the availability of
labor are widely reported as constraints to production.
Government support measures have not reached the majority of
firms. After these initial demand- and supply-side shocks,
firms in industrial parks are now entering a new uncertain
phase: over the next six months, firms expect that orders
will decrease by an average of 20 percent and employment by
17 percent compared to the same period last year. These
findings illustrate the need for sustained support to
protect firms and workers from the impacts of the pandemic
and to preserve the significant investments made in this
sector. Wage subsidy schemes and working capital loan
programs will be appropriate to mitigate large-scale job losses. |
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