Regional and Local Development Studies

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Browsing Regional and Local Development Studies by Subject "advancing economic competitiveness"

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    Role of Industrial Parks on Economic Competitiveness, Social Inclusiveness, and Environmental Protection in Ethiopia
    (Addis Ababa University, 2024-06) Mengistu Walelegn; Teshome Tafesse (PhD); Firew Mengistu (PhD)
    This dissertation investigated the Role of Industrial Parks in Advancing Economic Competitiveness, creating shared prosperity, and Safeguarding the Environment in Ethiopia based on United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO, 2019c) evaluation indicators. Utilizing cross-sectional study design, the required quantitative data were collected from 395 randomly selected management and technical staff of enterprises operating within public and private industrial parks (IPs) through selfadministered questionnaire. The required qualitative data were collected from 14 key informants using in depth interview. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, Binary Logistic Regression models, and IPPI while qualitative data using thematic analysis. The quantitative analysis indicates that various indicators that flourished due to IPs development such as open competitive tender systems, infrastructure development, maintenance services, job creation, and exports of processed goods have significantly enhanced advancing economic competitiveness. Similarly, the study underscores the significant contributions of safety measures, faith facilities, incident response center, emergency preparedness, annual social performance reports, accessible fire services, complaint handling, salary of employees, the proportion of female in the workforce, and low employees’ turnover in creating shared prosperity objective. On the other hand, the selection of environmentally suitable sites, wastewater treatment, segregated recycling reception bins, and operator’s possession of ISO14001 certification in IPs also enhance environmental safeguarding significantly. However, the study identifies factors that hindered the achievement of Advancing Economic Competitiveness, Shared prosperity, and safeguarding the Environment objectives in Ethiopia for rational planning of IPs and urgent policy interventions. These include challenges related to water supply reliability, limited repair, rectification, and restoration services for utilities, access to financial support, human resources recruitment and training services, and lower foreign direct investment (FDI) to total investment ratio in IPs compared to national average level hinder economic competitiveness significantly. Moreover, the social performance objective was hampered significantly by high average higher average commute time for employees to IPs, inefficient social role management ii system in place, limited number of firms with ISO45001 certification, and gender-based wage differentials in IPs. Besides, it is important to highlight that factors related to occupational health and safety were the main constraints that hamper IP’s role in social inclusivity. Last but not least, challenges related to solid wastes, toxic, and hazardous wastes management system, low level solar street lighting, and not performing annual environment audit on each firm operating in IPs had statistically significant negative effect on environmental stewardship. Accordingly, despite the aforementioned challenges, this dissertation concludes the significant role of Industrial Parks (IPs) in Ethiopia in advancing economic competitiveness, shared prosperity, and safeguarding the environment. Therefore, this dissertation recommends improvement of reliability of water supply, repair services, access to financial support; and design mechanisms to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) in IPs to boost Ethiopia’s economic competitiveness. Moreover, the government and stakeholders need also to prioritize enhancing occupational health and safety, addressing gender wage differentials, and improving health facilities in IPs to promote creating shared prosperity. Continuous monitoring and evaluation of enterprises adhering to national environmental laws and regulations as well as installing solar street lighting and improving capacity for solid waste, toxic, and hazardous waste management in IPs will also enhance environmental stewardship.