The Industrial Park Development Corporation (IPDC) of Ethiopia has announced the inauguration of the first car assembly plant in Dire Dawa Free Trade Zone (FTZ). The assembly plant was opened by Elauto Engineering and Trading Plc the first private company to start operating inside the Dire Dawa FTZ.  Dire Dawa FTZ is located some 445 km east of the capital Addis Ababa, which hosts the country’s first free trade zone aimed at attracting FDI, trade and export promotion, manufacturing, and creation of jobs, and so on. The facility inaugurated last week is built near Djibouti, which is the major trade route of the country and is expected to ease Ethiopia’s exports. The inauguration came a week after authorities launched Ethiopia’s first Free Trade Zone
 CEO of the IPDC, Sandokan Debebe stated that the company after the signing of the renting agreement with the corporation, has benefitted from various incentives reserved to encourage investment and will continue to benefit during the production period. The company invested more than $700 million to rent the facility and build the vehicle assembly plant inside the Free Trade Zone. The target of the production facility is to assemble 9,000 vehicles per annum for the domestic and foreign markets, creating job opportunities for more than 400 people.
Elauto has already entered into a deal with Addis Ababa Lada taxi associations to supply vehicles that will see the gradual replacement of the blue taxis in the capital.
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Also read;
https://trendsnafrica.com/somalia-ethiopian-ties-sour/
https://trendsnafrica.com/ethiopia-to-have-a-production-facility-of-gulf-ingot-fzc/
