Ethiopia: Prime Minister Ahmed inaugurates the country’s first free trade zone – Le Magazine du Manager

On Sunday, August 14, 2022, the Ethiopian Prime Minister proceeded with the inauguration of the Dire Dawa Free Trade Zone, the region’s first.

The free trade zone we are building is one way to integrate us into a rapidly changing world. I am convinced that the region will not only facilitate trade and investment, but also enhance our technological capabilities,” the Ethiopian Prime Minister stated.

Believing that “the development of free trade zones would facilitate import and export trade,” the Ethiopian leader emphasized his government’s determination to build additional free trade zones to allow Ethiopia to be competitive within the global trading system.

The inaugurated free trade zone is an industrial park in Dire Dawa, a dry port and terminal located on the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway, about 445 km east of Addis Ababa.

The region was chosen to host the country’s first free trade zone due to its “proximity to many ports, market potential, the huge amount of freight passing through it, and its ability to accommodate logistics and multimodal transportation.”