The Ethiopian Investment Agency (EIA), the country's foreign investment watchdog, has disclosed that investment permits were provided to 672 foreign investment projects that injected over 19.5 billion birr (2.25 billion U.S. dollars) in the just-ended year.

The EIA said in a news release that the capital for the projects in the reported period exceeded by over 10.9 billion birr (1.26 billion dollars) from the same period of last year while the number of projects surpassed by over 170.

The foreign investors are mainly engaged in Ethiopia's agriculture, construction, education, electricity supply, health and manufacturing, among others, said the EIA.

The stated number of projects are due to create employment opportunities for 59,270 permanent and 75,499 casual workers, it said.

The manufacturing and agriculture sectors take the lion's share of the investment projects, constituting respectively 212 and 169 of the 672 projects, it added.

Last year, investment licenses had been provided to 500 foreign investment projects that registered over 8.6 billion birr (991 million dollars), the agency said.

Despite the growing foreign investment flow, low-level of infrastructure facilities, weakness in identifying and preparing investment land, complicated loan granting system by the banks and the mounting price of cement, particularly as of late, were identified as major impediments in the investment sector.

The EIA said regional states need to prepare investment land beforehand so that investors would receive the land in short span of time.

Moreover, the agency said, financial institutions should improve loan granting system towards efficient service delivery, while the government and investors should spur investment by constructing infrastructure facilities through cost-sharing system.

The agency said the government is deploying efforts to create a more business-friendly atmosphere.

The recent consultation between senior government officials including Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and investors would help the latter intensively invest resources as well as for relevant offices to deliver services in a more efficient manner.

The government provides guarantees to foreign investors, including capital repatriations, remittances of dividends and interests, among others under the country's investment code.

The agency offers one-stop-shop services for investors needing approval, licensing and processing of land lease.

Ethiopia's viable economic environment, the investment code with its incentives, the untapped natural resources and the availability of a relatively cheap labor force are said to be the major investment attracting factors.

Source: Xinhua