Assessment on the Impacts of Investments in Hawassa City Administration, SNNPRS, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was undertaken with the prime objective of assessing the impacts brought out by investments in Hawassa City. As the study is basically both empirical and analytical in nature, field survey method was adopted. The study considered only the projects which are operational and at implementation stages. Among the nine investment streams, investors from six streams had given consent to cooperate in the data collection process. Thus the total population for the sample purpose from six streams is 288. Out of 288 projects, 40 sample investors were selected on disproportionate to size sampling basis. Both primary and secondary sources were sought for data collection. Semi structured questionnaire was prepared and distributed among the sample investors. Interviews were conducted with officials of Hawassa City Investment and Environmental Protection Bureau. Focus group discussion was conducted among the dwellers residing near to factories. Descriptive statistical tools such as percentages, average and compound growth rate were used for data analysis. The findings of the study reveal that there is an uneven growth in number of projects and employment creation in Hawassa City. Service rendering stream is found to be dominant in employment creation followed by manufacturing and agro industry. All the sample industries were found to have permanent employees except trade. Majority of the investors attempted for product/service diversification due to investment and the main area preferred for diversification is hotel and tourism. Naturally harvested products were found to be dominant resources heavily depended by the investors. Manufacturing industries were found to be negligent in adhering to environmental standards. Most of the investment streams failed to have pollution control mechanism. Although the investment streams of Hawassa City seem environmental orientation, a lot has to be done on Environmental audit and management so as to minimize pollution from investments. Based on the problems observed through the survey findings, certain recommendations of policy implications have been forwarded to maximizing the contributions of investments in Hawassa City.