The Impediments of Export-oriented Economic Growth Strategy’s Implementation in Ethiopia

Abstract

Exports have a vital role in driving economic growth. For a number of countries including Ethiopia, international trade, especially exports has a critical role namely, an impetus for the national economy. Successively, in the past several years’ the Ethiopia’s government has used export promotion policies and approaches to increase trades and generate export-driven economic development by establishing a comprehensively possible export sectors. Nevertheless, due to the declining exports which resulted in a negative balance of payment, acute shortages of foreign exchange, and mounting international obligations, the country’s export-oriented growth strategy was not successful as intended. Hence this study aimed to investigate the impediments of export-oriented growth strategies implementation in Ethiopia using a mixed research approaches.

The result of the study revealed that, it has been found that in spite of some progress or improvements in the export sectors of the study country (i.e., Ethiopia), when compared to past couple of years, the implementation of export-led growth strategies has led to lack of quality services due to poor planning, inadequate resources and poor monitoring and evaluation of the strategies being implemented. This has compromised the quality of each service being delivered. It has also led to a situation where the study country is unable to meet the ever-increasing demand for each of the services or commodities sufficiently. Evidence has confirmed also that the said services rendered are inadequate and not effective. The study also found that the implementation of the existing export-led growth strategy impacts negatively (affects or not as intended) on the provision of quality services and not successful as stipulated in the trade policy of the country. Hence, there is a need to critically consider the specific gaps identified by the study in designing strategies for accelerating development of exports in the country through holistic and integrated approaches. To this end, the outcomes stand important for redesigning export trade policy/strategies to boost the performance of exports and the overall ultimate economic growth in the country, Ethiopia.

Keywords: Ethiopia, Export–oriented growth strategy, Impediments, Implementation

DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/13-1-04

Publication date: January 31^st 2023