Lord Oates – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Oates on 2016-04-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support they are giving to the government of Ethiopia to encourage the development of a strong private sector able to sustain economic development and employment.
Baroness Verma
The UK Government supports the Government of Ethiopia’s vision of becoming an industrialised, resilient country that is less reliant on aid. DFID Ethiopia is investing in an exciting portfolio of programmes to help deliver this, underpinned by rigorous analysis of the key constraints to growth and private sector development.
DFID is helping to create 45,000 jobs and raise the incomes of 65,000 people through our support to key Ethiopian priority sectors; increasing the availability of financial products to 350,000 people through support to micro-finance institutions and banks; and helping to increase incomes for over 1.4 million households by providing land certificates to farmers.
We are also supporting the Government of Ethiopia to use its own resources well to encourage growth and private sector development. We will provide technical advice on public investment to help the Government improve the effectiveness of its spending. This will include bringing in more private sector finance over time, for example through Public Private Partnerships– i.e. a contract between a private party and government which can bring additional financing as well as expertise. In addition, our work on tax will help the Government meet its revenue targets, improve the business environment, limit corruption and increase transparency.
