Industry-Agriculture Linkage Vital to Transform Ethiopia’s Economy: Economic Experts - ENA English
Industry-Agriculture Linkage Vital to Transform Ethiopia’s Economy: Economic Experts
Addis Ababa, (ENA) November 10, 2022 Strengthening the linkage between the agriculture and industry sectors is vital to accelerate Ethiopia’s transformation into industrialization, experts said.
The Ethiopian Economic Association held discussion on financial liberalization and agriculture-industry linkages in Ethiopia today.
Ethiopian Economic Association (EEA) CEO, Professor Mengistu Ketema told ENA that the linkage between the agriculture and industry sectors has been weak for years.
This trend has to be changed for both sectors to flourish in the future and for the nation to benefit from these key sectors, he added.
Citing that most of the industries in the country are using imported inputs from abroad, the CEO stated that Ethiopia has a huge agricultural sector which could contribute greatly for the growth of the industry.
According to him, the growth of the industry sector is inevitably pivotal in creating jobs, gaining foreign exchange and or substituting import by local products.
As a result, the sector has a huge role to play in boosting the economy of the nation, Professor Mengistu noted.
Solomon Tsehay, a lecturer at Addis Ababa University said working on strengthening the linkage between agriculture and industry is vital for Ethiopia to accelerate its transformation into industrialization.
He believes that well designed planning and implementation has to be prioritized for the sectors to be more successful and for the linkages to be realty, among other measures.
Apart from creating the planning and paperwork, evaluating and monitoring mechanisms are also crucial to realize the ambitions of the nation in the sectors, the lecturer pointed out.
Highlighting that a nation like Ethiopia, with about 70 percent of its population depending on agriculture, Solomon said working on strengthening the linkage with industry should be a priority.
Besides, he finally stressed the need for focusing on the productivity of the agricultural sector.