ethiopia

Name: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Political Capital: Addis Ababa
Major cities: Dire Dawa, Gondar, Macallé, Bahir Dar, Gimma, Harar e Jijiga
Form of Government: Federal Republic
Political situation: Since 2001 (and re-elected in 2007), Girma Woldegiorgis, member of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), is President of the Republic. However, the main political role is played by the Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, elected in May 2010 and member of the EPRDF.
Territorial subdivision: The country is divided into 9 ethnically based administrative regions and 2 chartered cities: Addis Ababa, Afar, Amhara, Benishangul-Gumaz, Dire Dawa, Gambela, Harar, Oromia, Somali, Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region and Tigray.
Population: 82.101.998 (2011 est.)
Urbanization rate: 10,9% of the total population (2009)
Population density: 74/km²
Ethnic groups: Oromo 34.5%, Amara 26.9%, Somalie 6.2%, Tigraway 6.1%, Sidama 4%, Guragie 2.5%, Welaita 2.3%, Hadiya 1.7%, Affar 1.7%, Gamo 1.5%, Gedeo 1.3%, others 11.3% (2007 Census)
Official religions: Orthodox 43.5%, Muslims 33.9%, Protestants 18.6%, Traditional religions (animists) 2.6%, Catholics 0.7%, others 0.7%
Official language: As far 2007 census, the first languages are: Oromo 33.8%; Amharic 29.33% (official language); Somali 6.25%; Tigrinya 5.86%; Sidamo 4.84%; Wolaytta 2.21%; Gurage 2.01% and Afar 1.74%. Foreign languages particularly spoken are Arabic, English (principal foreign language taught at schools) and Italian (spoken by the European minority).
Territory surface: 1.104.300 km²
Land: 1 million km²
Neighboring countries: Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south.
Climate: Temperate in the plateaus and hot in plains. Temperatures vary from 20 to 30° C. Rainfall vary from 200 mm to 2000 mm.
Festivities and work hours: 28th May National Day
Passport and Visa: Passport and visa are necessary. Tourist visa could be obtained also at the arrival at the airport of Addis Ababa (except from Italian citizens of Eritrean origin).
Local currency: Birr
Currency exchange rate: 1 € =  22,57 Birr
GDP: 86,123 billion US$
GDP growth rate: 8% (2010 est.)
Inflation: 8.1% (2010 est.)
Unemployment: 20.5% (2009)
Transport system: 681 kmof railways (controlled with Djibouti, they are not largely operative), 36,469 km of roadways (of which 6,980 km paved). The country is landlocked and, thus, it uses Djibouti’s and Berbera’s (Somalia) ports.

Economy: In 2010, Ethiopia continued to register a rapid growth, following the trend of the last five years. This growth is led by services (with a rate of 14% of GDP), and industrial (9,9%) and agricultural (6%) sectors. However, the country has to deal with several macroeconomic challenges due in particular to the high inflation rate and to low international reserves. For these reasons, it has been launched in 2010/2011 the five-years Growth and Transformation Plan, with the aim of sustain country’s industrialization through substantial exports and import substitution. The export is experiencing a great acceleration, with coffee largest source of merchandize export earnings. However, also “non-traditional” export has a good development: in this sense, the growing demand of China and India is giving a significant contribution. Likewise, remittances and FDI have also been growing at an impressive rate, playing a preponderant role in supporting Ethiopian economy.

Primary Sector: Historically, country’s economy is based on agriculture, including livestock, a sector which currently represents 43% of GDP, almost 85% of export and which employs almost 80% of the population. Coffee is the principal commercial crop, even if its contribution to export earnings is decreasing in the last few years, due to the depression of international quotas and to the robust export growth of different product categories. Other important agricultural exports are cereals, vegetables and oily products (as palm oil). Ethiopia is leader in Africa for beeswax and honey production.

Secondary sector: Manufacture is characterized by little-scale industry, local craft and agro-industry enterprises which experienced a dynamic of rapid expansion in the last few years. Mining sector represents only 0,5% of GDP and it is principally focused on gold extraction and selling. The Growth and Transformation Plan 2011-2015 provides for a consistent growth of the industrial sector in the next five years. Considering Government’s expectations, industry would be the driving force of the country.

Tertiary sector: In the last few years, with the end of the military dictatorship, services have shown a significant growth, led by tourist services (thanks to natural treasures as well as the cultural heritage and historical, religious and archeological sites), by telecommunications, transports and financial and insurance services.

Renewable energies: As for most of African countries, energy sector is dominated by traditional energy sources from which depend most of the rural population (though, using it in an inefficient way).
The Ethiopian water potential is remarkable: however, energy production remains weak, as its access (it is worth considering the dependence of this source from phenomena like drought and rainfall frequency); it is a half-thermal source (thus, constraining to oil import), even if there are active hydropower plants.
In the next five years, the country intends to quintuple its own clean energy productive capacity and to become a CO2 zero-emission country by 2025 (also thanks to EEPCO, Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation, which intends to increase the electricity generation capacity, especially through wind and geothermal energy, from the current 2000 MW to 10,000 MW)
 
Investment incentives*: The Government continues in its commitment to foreign investors attraction and it has gave birth to a broad modification of the legislative framework with the aim of boosting investments, with several improvements in FDI discipline. Through 2002 Law Nr. 280 and 2003 Regulation Nr. 84, some incentives were introduced (tax and custom exemptions) and several disposition were modified in order to support investments. Among others, it is worth considering the remarkable time simplification and acceleration in licenses issue and in investment permissions. Some sectors are reserved to “local investors”, Ethiopian citizens or foreigners permanently resident in the country. The list, contained in the 2003 Regulation, includes 18 activity sectors, among which wholesale and retail trade, import and export of raw coffee and other agricultural products (kat, oils and vegetables), constructions, hotel (except from high quality hotel and resorts) and tourist business, as well as mining extraction which is attracting several international groups, offering interesting investment opportunities especially for bricks and cement production, for marbles and other building materials, and for oil, natural gas and gold field detection.  

* Source: www.ambaddisabeba.esteri.it