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Ivanka Trump Shoe Collection Could Soon Be ‘Made In Ethiopia’

Ivanka Trump Shoe Collection Could Soon Be ‘Made In Ethiopia’

Ivanka Trump, daughter to U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, may soon start producing her shoe collection in Africa after Huajian International Group, a Chinese company that makes her footwear, announced plans to shift base to Ethiopia.

The shoe-maker currently manufactures in China but plans to relocate to the horn of Africa nation where production costs and labor are cheaper.

“My goal is to create 30,000 jobs in Ethiopia by 2020, with exports reaching $1 billion to $1.5 billion,” AFP quoted Zhang Huarong, the chairman of Huajian International Group.

The factory to be built in Addis Ababa will be a complete industrial city with its own hospital.

Huajian Group has already supplied Ivanka with 100,000 pairs of shoes for her collection.

Trump’s presidential campaign team did not respond to the revelations by the shoe-maker.

The plan to relocate to Ethiopia comes four years after Zhang set up a $2 billion factory near the capital. The plant manufactures more than 2000 pairs of shoes a day that are exported to the US and European markets, China Daily reported.

Ethiopia, the fastest growing economy in Africa is fast turning into the continent’s textiles manufacturing hub, with global giants in the industry eyeing the nation.

The nation has cheap and abundant labor. Workers receive a low $35 a month which has wooed foreign companies into the country, especially with rising salaries and labor unrest in Asia, DireTube Mobile reported.

There are no minimum salary requirements in Ethiopia and due to the high unemployment rate, workers are forced to receive such low stipends. The salary of one Chinese textile worker can hire five workers in Ethiopia.

The horn of Africa country has one of the cheapest electricity rates in the world, charged at four cents per kilowatt hour.

Huajian International Group’s plan to move to Ethiopia comes at a period when Oromia protests are likely to scare away foreign investors.

A Dutch-owned flower farm Esmeralda Farms BV and other flower farms owned by Belgians, Israelis and Italians were vandalized last month.

Earlier this month, protesters attacked a plant owned by Dangote Cement in revenge clashes following the death of at least 100 Ethiopians during a stampede at the annual Irreecha festival in Bishoftu.

The government declared a six-month month state of emergency on Sunday in efforts to contain the violence and protect private and public property that has so far borne the brunt of the protests.

The clashes have led to the deaths of at least 500 people, according to data by Human Rights Watch.