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The Politics of Private Sector Investment in Local Economic Development: Local Governance and Regulatory Frameworks in Gurage Zone, Ethiopia

Received: 15 July 2019     Accepted: 7 August 2019     Published: 9 January 2020
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Abstract

Private investment is one of the prominent approaches to local economic development. The focus of this study is the exploration of the political elements of private investment in local economic development activities in the backgrounds of local governance. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods challenged the idea that private investment, considered economically, contributes to local economic development, an assumption that isolates private investment from the surrounding environments. Therefore, the study found out that private investment in Gurage Zone has been showing an inconsistent trend in terms of its contribution to land development, employment creation, and capital generation. This inconsistency is reflective of the nature of private investment which is a depoliticized, delocalized, and de-bureaucratized program highly isolated from the local realities. This again is related to the detrimental effect of local governance structure which is fragmented, asymmetrical, poorly structured, and de-contextualized, thereby creating weak-bureaucratic services, inefficient partnership, and poorly structured governance platforms. Thus, the study concludes that private investment in Gurage zone is being restrained because of its isolation from the local realities, political imperatives, bureaucratic networks, and resource contexts, supposed to be controlled by the local governments.

Published in Journal of Investment and Management (Volume 9, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.jim.20200901.11
Page(s) 1-11
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Private Investment, Local Economic Development, Local Governance, Regulatory Frameworks

References
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  • APA Style

    Wassihun Gebreegiziaber Woldesenbet, Tilahun Tadesse Worku, Bekalu Wachiso Gichamo. (2020). The Politics of Private Sector Investment in Local Economic Development: Local Governance and Regulatory Frameworks in Gurage Zone, Ethiopia. Journal of Investment and Management, 9(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jim.20200901.11

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    ACS Style

    Wassihun Gebreegiziaber Woldesenbet; Tilahun Tadesse Worku; Bekalu Wachiso Gichamo. The Politics of Private Sector Investment in Local Economic Development: Local Governance and Regulatory Frameworks in Gurage Zone, Ethiopia. J. Invest. Manag. 2020, 9(1), 1-11. doi: 10.11648/j.jim.20200901.11

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    AMA Style

    Wassihun Gebreegiziaber Woldesenbet, Tilahun Tadesse Worku, Bekalu Wachiso Gichamo. The Politics of Private Sector Investment in Local Economic Development: Local Governance and Regulatory Frameworks in Gurage Zone, Ethiopia. J Invest Manag. 2020;9(1):1-11. doi: 10.11648/j.jim.20200901.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jim.20200901.11,
      author = {Wassihun Gebreegiziaber Woldesenbet and Tilahun Tadesse Worku and Bekalu Wachiso Gichamo},
      title = {The Politics of Private Sector Investment in Local Economic Development: Local Governance and Regulatory Frameworks in Gurage Zone, Ethiopia},
      journal = {Journal of Investment and Management},
      volume = {9},
      number = {1},
      pages = {1-11},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jim.20200901.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jim.20200901.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jim.20200901.11},
      abstract = {Private investment is one of the prominent approaches to local economic development. The focus of this study is the exploration of the political elements of private investment in local economic development activities in the backgrounds of local governance. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods challenged the idea that private investment, considered economically, contributes to local economic development, an assumption that isolates private investment from the surrounding environments. Therefore, the study found out that private investment in Gurage Zone has been showing an inconsistent trend in terms of its contribution to land development, employment creation, and capital generation. This inconsistency is reflective of the nature of private investment which is a depoliticized, delocalized, and de-bureaucratized program highly isolated from the local realities. This again is related to the detrimental effect of local governance structure which is fragmented, asymmetrical, poorly structured, and de-contextualized, thereby creating weak-bureaucratic services, inefficient partnership, and poorly structured governance platforms. Thus, the study concludes that private investment in Gurage zone is being restrained because of its isolation from the local realities, political imperatives, bureaucratic networks, and resource contexts, supposed to be controlled by the local governments.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - The Politics of Private Sector Investment in Local Economic Development: Local Governance and Regulatory Frameworks in Gurage Zone, Ethiopia
    AU  - Wassihun Gebreegiziaber Woldesenbet
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    AB  - Private investment is one of the prominent approaches to local economic development. The focus of this study is the exploration of the political elements of private investment in local economic development activities in the backgrounds of local governance. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods challenged the idea that private investment, considered economically, contributes to local economic development, an assumption that isolates private investment from the surrounding environments. Therefore, the study found out that private investment in Gurage Zone has been showing an inconsistent trend in terms of its contribution to land development, employment creation, and capital generation. This inconsistency is reflective of the nature of private investment which is a depoliticized, delocalized, and de-bureaucratized program highly isolated from the local realities. This again is related to the detrimental effect of local governance structure which is fragmented, asymmetrical, poorly structured, and de-contextualized, thereby creating weak-bureaucratic services, inefficient partnership, and poorly structured governance platforms. Thus, the study concludes that private investment in Gurage zone is being restrained because of its isolation from the local realities, political imperatives, bureaucratic networks, and resource contexts, supposed to be controlled by the local governments.
    VL  - 9
    IS  - 1
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Author Information
  • Department of Civics and Ethical Studies, Wolkite University, Wolkite City, Ethiopia

  • Department of Civics and Ethical Studies, Wolkite University, Wolkite City, Ethiopia

  • Department of Civics and Ethical Studies, Wolkite University, Wolkite City, Ethiopia

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