Addis Ababa — Ethiopia is open to selling off a host of state-owned firms, partially or entirely, as part of major economic reforms designed to "unleash the potential of the private sector", its information minister said on Wednesday. Ahmed Shide said the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, which has announced a slew of shake-ups since coming into office in April, would retain majority holdings in the state-run airline, logistics, telecoms and energy companies. Everything else, from hotels and sugar farming to cement production, could be up for sale, with the exception of the tightly controlled financial services sector, whose fate was yet to be decided, he said. "The main objective of this is to encourage private sector development in the country," Ahmed said, making clear that the nation was turning the page on decades of reliance on the state to drive economic growth. State development projects "The role of the private sector is very fundamental. "We did a lot of state devel...
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