Bantihun Gessese, head of Communications of the Ethiopian Textile Industry Institute, said that the national economy obtained 68.5 million dollars from this sector in the first eight months of the present fiscal year and created 90,000 new jobs.

According to Zerihun Abebe, director of the Textile Industry Investigation, Monitoring and Support of the Ethiopian Industry Ministry, the national textile industry is growing each month.

Factories are now over 200, a number that was reached only in the last two years.

The trend shows that the sector is on the right track to realize Ethiopia’s vision of becoming a continental textile hub.

According to recent government data, the textile industry grew at an average rate of 51 percent, and more than 65 investment projects were authorized for foreigners in the last five or six years.

The official explained that the expansion and development of industrial parks in key areas, the adoption of technology and industrial culture, together with attractive investment incentives, are helping the growth of the sector.

Abebe pointed out that the textile industry is considered important for the technologically less advanced developing countries, because it allows them to exploit their abundant labor force and cover the lack of capital.

At the same time the Ministry is working on the solution of problems related to raw materials such as cotton, trying to increase productivity and competitiveness.