Summary: 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 and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP). In this period, the country achieved high economic growth with significant improvements in physical infrastructure and human capital resulting from public and private investments. The PASDEP has been followed by the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) spanning 2010/11–2014/15. The GTP is aimed at sustaining high and broad-based economic growth and achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets by 2015. 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 poverty reduction and structural transformation. This is underpinned by the vision of a “developmental state”, whereby a proactive public sector leads the development process and the private sector is oriented to support the development goals. As a result, an economic structure has evolved where the public sector is deeply involved and state ownership is widespread in economic activities.
