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| Construction at a station on a metro line through Addis Ababa, one of a series of infrastructure projects that Ethiopia, once mired in poverty, hopes will help it mimic Asia’s industrial rise. Credit Tiksa Negeri/Reuters |
ADDIS
ABABA, Ethiopia — The bulldozers, tractors and cranes are busy day and
night, paving new roads, building tall glass buildings and constructing
a new light rail system to stitch together the city’s ends.
In
less than five years, the city’s skyline has changed drastically. Above
the dust, in a seven-story building overlooking Meskel Square, sits
Abiy Gebeyehu, a real estate development manager at the Sunshine
Construction Company. He is going through files and figures, looking
down at the spot where Ethiopia’s
former communist dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam, once smashed to the
ground three bottles of what was supposedly blood as a warning to his
opponents.
“The
government changed its policy,” Mr. Gebeyehu said, explaining how his
company became part of Ethiopia’s economic growth. “They are engaging
private business.”
Once
the epitome of poverty and hunger, Ethiopia is changing. Three decades
after a famine that prompted America’s top singers to respond with “We
Are the World,” Ethiopia has had an average economic growth rate of 10
percent for over a decade and has met or is coming close to meeting
several important Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations,
according to the World Bank.
Some
economists have called Ethiopia an “African lion,” mimicking the
success stories of Asia’s economic tigers, and the government here has
an ambitious plan to make Ethiopia a middle-income country by 2025.
It
sometimes seems that everything here in the capital is under
construction. Head out on one road in the morning and you might find it
blocked off for a development project by evening. The thumping of
jackhammers, the sight of men in orange vests, and the comments of
Ethiopians who are at once infuriated by the inconvenience and impressed
with their country’s transformation are constant.
But
critics of Ethiopia’s economic growth story point to human rights
abuses (some carried out in the name of economic development) and the
lack of genuine democracy, and they question the sustainability of the
nation’s economic path.
“When a society is not free, development is not as sustainable,” said Obang Metho, executive director of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia,
an advocacy group. “It is not investment in building the human capacity
of the people, but only in infrastructure and opportunities that mostly
benefit the narrow interests of regime cronies.”
By
no means has Addis Ababa eliminated the problems found in many
developing capitals. Tin houses in shanty neighborhoods can still be
seen around town, electricity cuts are common, the Internet is
frustratingly slow and telecommunications are largely not reliable.
“The overall performance,” however, said Guang Z. Chen, the World Bank’s country director here, “remains impressive.”
There
are many reasons for the boom, but analysts attribute part of the
growth to the idea of “the developmental state,” championed by former
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in his writings, as the framework in which
the current economy functions.
“The idea is a state with a sense of mission,” said Dereje Feyissa Dori,
Africa research director at the International Law and Policy Institute,
who is based in Addis Ababa. “It is building capitalism from above.”
Following
the examples of countries like South Korea and China, he said, the
government is heavily involved in the economy, directing the private
sector. It has expanded in the areas of services, public investment,
infrastructure, education and health by borrowing heavily from
state-owned banks and effectively managing foreign development aid from
the United States, Britain and other parts of Europe.
An economy that once depended on coffee as a main source of income now sees its national carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, as the main generator of foreign exchange. The country is also constructing Africa’s largest hydropower plant,
the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Ethiopian officials proudly
claim will be built with the nation’s own financial might, not foreign
assistance.
“Our
struggle is to fight poverty,” said Haji Gendo, a spokesman for the
Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. “We are targeting specific
sectors.”
Remittances
from the large Ethiopian diaspora and private investment from countries
like China, India, Turkey, Sweden and Britain — attracted to the
country’s low-cost labor market and proximity to Europe — have also
contributed to the growing economy, especially in the textile and
leather industries.
In
an industrial zone on the outskirts of the capital, one of many
throughout the country, Pittards, a British leather company, is
manufacturing and exporting “Made in Ethiopia” gloves that include work
gloves sold at Costco retailers in the United States and fashion gloves
worn in Paris and Tokyo.
“Ethiopia
was a natural choice,” said Reg Hankey, Pittards’s chief executive,
citing the availability of raw materials, labor and proximity to global
markets.
Back
in the lobby of Sunshine Construction, where a banner displays the
company’s slogan, “Seeing Is Believing,” models of apartment complexes,
villas, and new buildings and photographs of road construction adorn the
place. Many of these buildings house government offices or are bought
by Ethiopians returning from abroad.
But
the development projects that are part of a government master plan to
expand the capital into areas outside the city have bred anger and
clashes, as well.
Last
year, protests led to the deaths of at least nine students. And in
other parts of the country, the displacement and relocations of
populations for dam and big agriculture projects have also stirred
discontent.
“While
Ethiopia needs development, the government’s approach to development
leaves no room for dissent or opposition to government policies,” said
Felix Horne, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Throughout the
country, citizens are routinely displaced for development projects, and
there is little consultation or compensation given for the loss of their
lands.”
The
World Bank itself has come under fire for aiding the government despite
such abuses. In the Gambella region, residents complained that they
were forced off their ancestral lands by the government under the
pretext of improving basic services.
But
in a sleight of hand, residents said, they were moved to places with
infertile ground, no schools and no clinics, while their own lands were
leased off to investors.
“We
draw important lessons from this case to better anticipate ways to
protect the poor,” the president of the World Bank Group, Jim Yong Kim, said in a statement late last month.
Ethiopia’s economic growth comes as its strategic, geopolitical role remains critical.
An
ally in the American fight against radical Islam in the region,
Ethiopia hosts an American military base; is an island of relative
stability in a tough neighborhood that includes Sudan, South Sudan and
Somalia; and has largely been spared the type of terrorist attacks that
have struck Kenya. The country has been able to turn its relative
stability into diplomatic capital, hosting international peace talks for
neighboring countries.
“We
no longer have war,” said a cabdriver as he zigzagged his blue
Soviet-made Lada through a traffic jam, explaining the roots of the
economic boom as he passed a construction site.
Still,
critics say the government is dominated by members of the Tigre ethnic
group, does not tolerate dissent and manages a surveillance program to
keep dissidents in check.
Elections
are scheduled for this year, and Parliament is dominated by the
governing Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party. Only one seat belongs
to a member of the opposition.
“We
have elections every five years, it is a multiparty state, but the
practice is authoritarian,” Mr. Dori said. “And the opposition is in
shackles.”
Last
year, six bloggers and three journalists critical of government
policies were arrested and charged with terrorism and connections to an
outlawed United States-based opposition group that the government said
was plotting attacks to overthrow it.
“I
am not happy about the human rights situation in Ethiopia today,” said a
lawyer for the bloggers, Ameha Mekonnen. “It is not uncommon to hear
from detainees that torture is undergoing in many detentions centers.”
Some economists question how long Ethiopia’s model of state-driven capitalism can be sustained.
“This
kind of economic model has worked very well for Ethiopia,” said Mr.
Chen of the World Bank. “The question is, can you continue this model
unchanged over the next 10 years? Our argument is no.”
Beyond that, many here debate whether development and democracy are necessarily interlinked.
“If people are hungry, they will not think of democracy or anything; they need bread,” said Mr. Gendo, the ministry spokesman.
Mr. Mekonnen, the lawyer, thought differently.
“If
there is confidence between the government and the people, that would
be better for development,” he said. “I don’t think there is that kind
of trust, I am afraid.”
http://www.nytimes.com/
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