The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia: Selected Issues

1. In recent years, Ethiopia has sustained high growth spurred by bold national plans.During 2005/06–2009/10, the Ethiopian government implemented the Plan for Accelerated andSustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP). In this period, the country achieved higheconomic growth with significant improvements in physical infrastructure and human capitalresulting from public and private investments. The PASDEP has been followed by the Growth andTransformation Plan (GTP) spanning 2010/11–2014/15. The GTP is aimed at sustaining high andbroad-based economic growth and achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets by2015. The longer term goal is to become a middle-income country by 2020–25.

2. A key feature of the economic strategy has been an explicit commitment to povertyreduction and structural transformation. This is underpinned by the vision of a "developmentalstate", whereby a proactive public sector leads the development process and the private sector isoriented to support the development goals. As a result, an economic structure has evolved wherethe public sector is deeply involved and state ownership is widespread in economic activities.