Japan and Ethiopia held a five days dialogue that lasted from August 11 to 15 on Industrial Development. The dialogue was held in Addis Ababa and it was the 14th Round of Policy Dialogue on Industrial Development.

According to Walta Information Center this Dialogue was referred to in the Joint Communiqué by Prime Minister Mr. Shinzo Abe and Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn issued on the occasion of the state visit of Japan’s Prime Minister to Ethiopia in January.

The Dialogue has been held since 2000 when the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi Professor Kenichi Ohno and Professor Izumi Ohno from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies requested for it.

The Dialogue has been conducted as part of a technical assistance project by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). This infers it has been coordinated closely with the "Kaizen” initiative that the Ethiopian Government is implementing across the country with
assistance of Japan. This is also the platform that created the “Champion Products approach,” which is a tool for promoting trade and increasing exports.

The Dialogue attracted many high level officials and was headed by Newayekiristos Gebreab, Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister.

Topics such as the positioning of “Kaizen” in the next GTP2, a direction of scaling up industrial capacity to achieve industrial development and a light manufacturing vision were discussed. In addition to this points Ethiopia should note were also raised.

Other than these, the dialogue also covered topics such as the situation of the “Latest Comer” countries, namely Myanmar, Cambodia and Bangladesh, was was introduced and an active exchange of views and discussions were conducted on policies to encourage more FDI based on
other countries’ experiences or the necessity to implement industrial policy step by step.

Source: Walta Information Center