WHAT IS CONNECT ETHIOPIA? Established in 2005 by Philip Lee & Brody Sweeney Business-to-business charity Offices in Addis Ababa & Dublin Addressing the cause, not the symptoms Focusing on capacity building, trade and investment

OUR GOAL CONNECT: the efforts of the Irish business community FOCUS: the combined efforts on one country – Ethiopia BUILD: capacity to help stimulate the economy

WHY ETHIOPIA? Dynamic country with huge potential Low corruption Safe Sense of nationhood Politically stable Excellent relations with Ireland Identifiable with emotional ties Full embassy Priority country for Irish Aid First class Ambassadors in Addis & Dublin

SECTORAL TWINNING Coalition of Irish stakeholders Irish – Ethiopian tourism taskforce Chamber of Commerce (Dublin - Addis) Law society Engineers Ireland Institute of Bankers Trinity College Insurance Federation Community twinning (Sodo – Skerries)

BUSINESS TWINNING Coffee Textiles IAWS Tourism Venture Capital Fund Agri-business IT outsourcing (M/A Com – Lava Solutions) Telecommunications Microfinance & banking Photography

KEY PROJECTS Rule of Law Coffee Textiles Tourism Venture Capital Fund IT & Telecommunications

TEXTILES SME producers Business Development Training Mentoring Expanding design element Distribution – department stores/boutiques Industrial - Garment Manufacturing Establishing business links

Information Technology Outsourcing component manufacturing (M/A Com - Lava Business Solutions) Facilitate the establishment of Ethiopian IT providers on virtual outsourcing platform

OVERVIEW OF LAVA BUSINESS SOLUTIONS RELATIONSHIP MANAGER: AIDAN MAGNER

Cork Operation “ Core” products are very labour intensive hand wound sub miniature transformers. In 1990 we started outsourcing of manual labour to China and gradually evolved to a full turnkey product solution. Currently 1600 employed at that site In 2000 we worked with a local factory in HoChiMinh City, Vietnam. There are currently 1200 employees engaged on our products in this facility. In 2006 we launched contract manufacturing in two locations in India, currently they have a combined employee base of 300 people. A core element of our manufacturing strategy is to have our assets in low cost countries and close to our largest emerging markets. Price competition in the market increased significantly during Mid 2008 a decision was taken to look to new low cost manufacturing solutions.

Search Short listing of countries by GDP per capita, Human Development Index, Industrial Developments, Social & Political stability, Education Standards, etc -Indentified possible solutions in Sri Lanka and Ethiopia Connect Ethiopia provided perfect platform for accessing and entering Addis Ababa -Local knowledge -Recognised brand name -Access to political support -Work around for investment proclamation 207/2002 that states that any FDI must be $100k minimum investment

Lava Business Solutions Initial visit August 2008 Company registered Jan st electronics company in Ethiopia $10K seed money invested in Lava Engineers and equipment sent in March 2009, initial samples sent in May 2009 Decision taken to install “hybrid” solution. Vietnam factory would subcontract to Lava for manual operation. Visit in February 2010 coincided with real business need to scale operations Decision taken in March 2010 to move 3 high volume lines to Addis Ababa - Projected 250 people by November year plan to scale to 450 people -Potentially 600 people

What will it mean Lava benchmarked local wage levels -They are paying above average wage -Incentive schemes in place Clean, low risk manufacturing environment -Training and Mentoring scheme (business management, accounting, working capital, manufacturing, logistics, quality controls)

What will it mean Sustainable employment -As Lava develop, bring more customers, career paths develop -Assist in local economy development Next generation entrepreneurs