In May 2019 Deutsche Welle’s German-language reportage framed Ethiopia as a next stop for textile and garment production as Asian wages rose and European brands hunted cheaper sewing lines.
The story sat beside Hawassa Industrial Park and related parks that Ethiopian officials sold as a path from farming into factory work. Critics already asked whether $26-a-month wages, imported fabric, and weak unions would build a real industry or only another footloose assembly stop.
German and other European media attention mattered because EU buyers and development banks helped shape the same parks that later faced FX shortages, political shock, and labor complaints.
Kept as industry archive, the DW angle is a dated European view of Ethiopia’s garment bet, useful next to NYU wage studies and local reporting from the same season.
Sources: Deutsche Welle