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to UN agencies, with more than 40 being killed, local media report. Within two months of taking up office, Ahmed opened the economy for private investment in two sectors: telecommunications and the Ethiopian Airlines group. Te airline has garnered positive reviews for its young fleet and its service, and is an attractive business proposition as it develops an impressive hub-and-spoke network out of Addis Ababa. With an eye to the future, the
airline has “Vision 2025”. Tis is, “To become the most competitive and leading aviation group in Africa by providing safe, market-driven and customer-focused passenger and cargo transport, aviation training, flight catering, MRO and ground services by 2025”. Part of this is increasing the number of aircraſt from 100 to 140. Te airline currently serves 120 international destinations and 20 domestic, and over the past seven years passenger numbers have grown from three million to eight million, with revenues seeing almost 153 per cent growth – the goal for 2025 is to hit US$10bn. Although the airline says that its
market is the six billion people living within a ten-hour flight of Addis Ababa, the emphasis remains on
NOVEMB ER 2018
Six billion people live within a ten-hour flight of Addis Ababa
Africa: “For expansion, Africa comes first,” says regional director for Europe and passenger marketing development Girma Shiferaw. “And we have started to fly to secondary cities
because the continent is growing.” For those looking to
invest in or trade with Ethiopia, other obvious
prospects for business are oil and gas. Unexplored areas
such as the Somali region and the
ABOVE FROM LEFT: Addis Ababa Light Rail station; gardens at the Sheraton Addis Ababa; the Simien Mountains are a World Heritage Site; celebrating Genna, the Ethiopian Christmas
south and south-west of the country provide a massive opportunity; mining, agro-processing and manufacturing, including textiles and leather products are also ripe for investment. Te government has plans for around ten industrial parks to attract manufacturers. European organisations already operating in Ethiopia include Unilever, Diageo and Pittards, which produces leather and leather goods. Pittards has been buying raw skins
from Ethiopia for more than 100 years and has had a presence there since 2005. It now has five factories,
four in Addis Ababa and one two hours south near Mojo. “We have 1,500 employees, all Ethiopian,” says CEO Reg Hankey. “Ethiopia has a lot of advantages: it is duty free to Europe and the US, it speaks English as a second language, it is in the European time zone, it has the raw material, a well-educated workforce and it is hungry to develop.”
TRAINING FOR SUCCESS Te main weakness is a lack of experience. Pittards is developing Ethiopian management and employees, and has Chinese trainers. “Today, the majority of the world’s manufacturing is based in China, there are many more people there with hands-on operational experience than elsewhere,” says Hankey. “Companies that flood the senior management with expats sometimes get quicker results, but if you invest in people, they see they have a career path; it may take a bit longer because you have to train them but, in the fullness of time, it is better value for your company to do it that way.” “Tere is growing interest in
Ethiopia,” says the DIT spokesman. “We have organised a couple of trade missions from the UK in the past two years and Rolls-Royce
busine s s tr a v eller .com
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