Ethiopia has been registering significant achievements in trade and investment with only a short period since the country pursued a free market economy.  With this regard, the government is doing its level best to encourage the private sector and in particular foreign investors.

In line with this, the Somali regional state is one of the regions which is encouraging investors through the provision of various incentives. 

The Somali region is endowed with various agriculture and other resources, particularly land, rivers, livestock, natural forests, minerals, energy and tourism resources.  The region has a large number of livestock that makes it one of the richest in livestock resources with the highest per capital holding in the country.   The livestock population of the region is estimated as follows: camel 2,032,000; sheep 9,053,000; goat 8,547,000; cattle 6,000,000 and equines 250,000 in heads. Its proximity to sea ports in its neighboring countries such as Djibouti, Somalia, and Kenya is additional advantage to the region.  The investment opportunities are multi sectoral and wide including the investment opportunities in education and health infrastructural facilities.

Investment Opportunities in Livestock Sector 

No	Sector
1	Livestock breeding center establishment
2	Cattle fattening
3	Dairy farming
4	Dairy, meat sheep and goat farming
5	Meat camel farming
6	Poultry farming
7	Honey farming
8	Fishery farming
9	Ostrich farming
10	Crocodile farming
11	Forage development and distribution
12	Veterinary clinics
13	Drugstores
14	Live animal marketing (export)
15	Meat export
16	Hides and skins development and marketing
17	Honey development, milk, meat and butter processing
18	Other livestock product processing

To mention other opportunities in Agricultural resources, the region has four major rivers, Wabishebelle, Genale, Dawa and Weyib which carry large amount of water throughout the year.  In addition to those rivers, the region is rich in under ground water.

According to Somali Region Pastoral and Agro-pastoral research Institute, the Wabishebele river valley has a vast flat area of 500,000 - 600,000 hectares of good irrigable land out which 37,000 hectares land been developed.  It is also proved that different types of rice from both Africa and Asia countries are suitable to grow in the region.  

Potential Irrigable land in Somali Regional State

No	Site	Irrigable land in Ha.
1	Wabishebelle Basin	112,000
2	Weyb Basin	417,000
3	Genale Basin	135,000
4	Dawa Basin	108,000
	Total	772,000

 The major crops that can be grown in the region includes among others cereal, oil crops, pulses, vegetables and other fruits, flowers, industrial crops such as cotton, sugar cane, tobacco and agro forestry.

The Somali region is well known for its variety of minerals both found in and out side the earth surface that need exploration some of the minerals found in the region are shown in the table below:

	No	Minerals	Places found/location/	Estimated quantity Reserve	Usage	Remarks
	1	Salt	Afdere, 32Km of Hargelle in Boji-dol between Ginis and El-dere	The estimated reserve for both sites app. total 1.68 X 10 tons	Used for edible salt, food processing material and  hydrochloric acid production, freezing point depression for metallurgical processing	Since its content is five times bigger than saline d Assab it will be good if manufactured
	2	Gold	Moyale primary gold exploration and development project (MPGEDP) sites are Cbanmule Haramasam Hassamta	Estimate resources range 300 Kg C1 with an average of 5.1 gm/ton 535 KgC2 with an average of 0.48 gm/ton	Provides valuable standard against which various currencies can be measured.  Applied for decorative purpose Jewelry and electro technical application	The current gold production is very low but trained and organized groups bring up this expectation high.
	3	Feldspar	Found in the Shabeley area near Bombas and Babile town	Reserve reach up to 5000 tons in Babile with grade ranging 35% - 55% Reserves reach up to 1,000,000 tons in Bambes with an area range of 3000 M2.	Applied in powdered from as a constituent for ceramic mixes.  Acts as flux in the manufacturing of China porcelain in glass making for resistance	Production of the feldspar is under expectation
	4	Mica	It is hosted with the pegmatites of Sbebella and Carara area	There is no exact figure but one promising expeditions revealed a promising pegmatite lenses to be 35Km2	In electrical industries as an insulation malarial.  As filler in paper and point industries	Production of mica is under expectation

The Somali regional state is the greatest oil and gas resource deposit area in Ethiopia.  It is estimated that 68 billion metric cube of natural gas deposit is available at Kalub area alone in Dobo wain woreda (district).  Other gas deposits and oil area are also exist in the region.

Investment opportunities in education and health sectors are highly demanded as well as are lifesaving.  Investment on tourism, national    attraction    and     tourism

infrastructure is feasible.  Similar to other parts of the country demand for housing is growing fast in Somali region particularly in large towns of the region.

Therefore, the floor is open for investors to feel the gap and benefit from the untapped investment opportunities as the region is willingly ready and prepared to welcome and support all investors with its level best.