ACE Designates Ethiopia as Top 10 Targets for UK Consultants

Addis Ababa  October 16  /2019 Ethiopia named among the top-ten targets for United Kingdom consultants seeking to export their expertise in post-Brexit Britain, according to new research from the Association of Consultancy and Engineering (ACE).

Malaysia and Mexico are among the top-ten lists where by size of market, the US, India and Indonesia are the top targets identified, with cumulative construction outputs between 2018 and 2030.

“Ethiopia is one of the more controversial countries on our list,” said Graham Robinson, director of construction trends forecaster Global Construction Perspectives, who carried out the research for the ACE with think-tank Oxford Economics.

“But it is a simple case of follow the money,” he said, explaining that Ethiopia was one of the biggest beneficiaries of UK overseas development aid and that it also benefitted from significant funding from the World Bank.

Robinson added that Ethiopia is currently rated 123rd out of 141 countries in terms of quality of infrastructure and, with a rapidly growing working age population, was set to invest heavily between now and 2030 in large scale and city-wide master planning.

The ACE’s global export strategy was published yesterday alongside its vision for the future of consultancy, aimed at putting consulting engineers back at the top table after years of ceding power and influence to others in the construction supply chain.