TPLF full of optimism about Mekelle Industrial Park
July 11,2017
borkena,Ethiopian News
Mekelle Industrial Park is inaugurated on July 9. The construction cost is reported to be US $100 million. The park covers an area of 100-hectare land and government believes that it will create more than 20,000 jobs for people in Tigray region of the country.
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegne and other high-ranking government officials travelled to Mekelle, the capital of Tigray region, for the inauguration. Hailemariam is cited as saying, by government media –Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, that industrial park development will pave the way for the country’s development.
He travelled to Mekelle after inaugurating Kombolcha Industrial Park on July 8. Conveniently located in north central Ethiopia, on the way to central Ethiopia to the capital and to the eastern part of Ethiopia, the town had a textile and meat production factory which was established during Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam’s government. The newly inaugurated Kombolcha Industrial Park is smaller compared to Mekelle Industrial Park.
Arkebe Oqubay, who is one of the key Tigray People’s Liberation Front and chairman of Industrial Parks development board, believes that Mekelle Industrial Park would play a positive role in “promoting technology transformation and economic integration.”
The inauguration ceremony concluded with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalege dancing along with senior Tigray People’s Liberation Front officials to the tunes of TPLF’s military and political song. He was seen jumping with a hundred Ethiopian currency bill on his neck – apparently tipped by euphoric cadres of TPLF.
For many astute observers, TPLF officials dance circling the prime minister, whom many Ethiopians consider to be a puppet of the ruling elite (TPLF), has a political meaning that resonates with the ethnic-supremacy mentality of TPLF officials.
Mekelle Industrial Park inauguration happened just weeks after the council of ministers drafted legislation to grant Oromia region of Ethiopia a ‘special interest’ over Addis Ababa – something that pundits interpreted as a strategic move to make the capital Addis Ababa ethnic battling ground and a playing card for power balance game.
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