CHAPTER TWO#

The Economic System#

Article 9#

  1. The state shall advance the material and cultural development of the working people which is the primary objective of economic construction.

  2. The state shall extricate the country from economic backwardness by progressively broadening and strengthening socialist relations of production and by accelerating the development of the productive forces through the application of science and technology.

  3. The state shall build a highly interdependent and integrated national economy, it shall strengthen the economic relationship between rural and urban areas as well as between the periphery and the center.

Article 10#

  1. The state shall ensure that the ecological balance is maintained and, by ensuring the conservation and development of natural resources, particularly land, water, forest, and wildlife, it shall guarantee their utilization for the benefit of the working people.

  2. The state shall ensure that human settlement patterns correspond to the distribution of natural resources in order to create favorable conditions for development.

  3. The state shall encourage the scattered rural population to form consolidated communities in order to free rural life from backwardness and to enable the people to attain a better social life..

Article 11#

The state shall guide the economic and social activities of the country through a central plan.

Article 12#

In the People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia the forms of ownership of the means of production are socialist, that is, state and cooperative ownership, private ownership and other forms of ownership as determined by law.

Article 13#

  1. State ownership is public ownership.

  2. The state shall, through the ownership of key production, distribution and service enterprises, play the leading role in the economy. Natural resources, in particular land, minerals, water and forest, are state property. The development and utilization of natural resources shall be determined by law.

Article 14#

The state shall provide the necessary support and encouragement for the expansion of the role of cooperative ownership.

Article 15#

Private ownership shall, guided by state policy, carry out activities beneficial to the national economy. The right to transfer private ownership in accordance with the law is guaranteed.

Article 16#

Personal property is protected by law. The right to transfer personal property in accordance with the law is guaranteed.

Article 17#

The state may, where public interest so requires, purchase, requisition by making appropriate payment, or nationalize upon payment of compensation, any property in accordance with the law.

Article 18#

  1. Labor is an honorable source of wealth and well-being of society. The social standing of any person shall be determined by his work.

  2. The state shall progressively ensure the realization of the principle “‘from each according to his ability, to each according to his work”.

  3. The state shall see to it that society’s dedication creativity are enhanced. work, know-how and