Investment Climate Improvements Program in Ethiopia

Results achieved at the end of the project (June 2019) include: (1) trained over 1 500 government officials on trade policies strategies and legal frameworks; (2) finalized guidance notes for new income tax and tax administration proclamations; (3) improved the interface of the Ethiopian Investment Commission’s (EIC) online investment services; (4) decreased physical inspections of cargo by border clearance by 35%; (5) reduced the number of supporting documents required for importation and exploration; (6) issued a pre-arrival customs clearance procedure manual which reduced the time to process the import declarations; (7) introduced major legal regulatory and administrative reforms translated into reduced compliance burdens and direct cost savings totalling US$34 million for companies against a target of US$25 million; (8) registered a cumulative result of US$61.4 million against a target of US$18 million in private sector savings for trade logistics; (9) reduced the amount of goods going through customs red channels from 60% to 24.5% against a target of 30%; and (10) 10% of the new firms established during the reform period are attributable to the reforms realized by this project. These results have contributed to developing a more transparent and business-friendly environment for both women and men entrepreneurs in Ethiopia.