The end of a fiscal year and the beginning of a new one provides a good opportunity for drawing a balance sheet of the achievements and difficulties as well as for charting a fresh course of action for the future. We are now at the beginning of Ethiopian fiscal year 2002 and it would not be out of place to look back objectively at the performance of the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (AACCSA) in view of its stated objectives and the goals it set for itself at the beginning of Ethiopian fiscal year 2001.

What did AACCSA aim to achieve in Ethiopian fiscal year and what does its performance look like? This question can best be answered by no one other than At Teferi Asfaw, Deputy Secretary General of AACCSA whose task is to provide leadership on a day to day basis and oversee the implementation of the annual work plan. Answering to a similar question forwarded to him by the Amharic section of this paper last month, Ato Teferi said that AACCSA has been making concerted efforts to help businesspeople take due advantage of the available business and investment opportunities and promote new ventures all by themselves. In view of this, the Chamber had organized various discussion forums and awareness creating conferences so that the business community would grasp the meaning and implications of Ethiopia’s adherence to the World Trade organization (WTO).

In fact AACCSA has been taking an active role in the national dialogue on WTO membership since the idea was pushed forward more than eight years ago and has been working closely with the government institution particularly entrusted with the task of studying and gathering expert opinions on the issue. So, AACCSA’s contribution to the debate was not accidental but a reflection of its unwavering commitment to the interests of the business sector and how it would be best served in the framework of Ethiopia’s membership to the global institution.

Although AACCSA is not a political organization but an institution actively involved in promoting the interests of the private sector in Addis Ababa, it has played an active role by articulating the attitude of the private sector within the peer review group that has been visiting our country a few months back in order to review the political, economic and social performance of the government in accordance with the basic principles of good governance agreed upon by member countries of the peer review group.

As part of its main activities, AACCSA has commissioned a series of studies in the Ethiopian fiscal year 2001 geared towards addressing the problems encountered by the private sector. Ato Teferi said in this connection, “Through the Private Sector Development Hub (PSD-Hub), AACCSA has commissioned studies useful for the advancement of trade and investment in the country. In addition to that, preparations are being completed to commission three new studies.”

The PSD-Hub is one of the most critical unit of the Ethiopian Chamber System that is regularly identifying specific areas of study with particular relevance to the promotion of the private sector. Past records testify to the fact that the PSD-Hub is the brain behind the Chamber so to say, generating new ideas for trade and investment promotion.

According to Ato Teferi, AACCSA’s pro-business activities are not limited to the domestic sphere. Efforts have also been made to help local businesspeople establish business relations with their foreign counterparts and by so doing promote joint ventures, import and export trade. In this way quite a number of business deals have been signed between Ethiopian investors and their foreign counterparts while delegations from Japan, Britain, Italy, Thailand, China and France have come to Addis Ababa to be hosted by AACCSA and to hold talks with local partners.
As Ato Teferi put it in the interview, these meetings have helped foreign delegation assess the business environment in Addis and in the country as a whole. They could see for themselves how conducive the atmosphere is for joint ventures. The two major international trade fairs that have been held in last fiscal year have also amply demonstrated the huge and untapped potential for trade and business that needs to be developed while the also served as a Forum for technology transfer.
“The Chamber believes that the trade fair for agricultural and food products had a particular relevance to our country at the same time highlighting the potentials in this particular sector.” Ato Teferi said. In fact that agricultural exhibition came at an opportune moment when the country is making strenuous efforts to deal with its food problem and the exhibition was no doubt relevant in highlighting the major challenges of food production in the technological sense of the term.
In the just ended Ethiopian fiscal year, AACCSA has also brought its own inputs whenever a new law or legislation pertinent to the business community was being suggested, or discussed thereby promoting the interests of the private sector in the legislative process so that the laws could be as business-friendly, as possible before they start to be implemented. Whenever a dispute arose around the issuance of new regulations that are not business-friendly AACCSA was always on hand to criticize them or make positive recommendations so that the regulations could be improved in a way that strike the correct balance between public and private interests. In this sense, the ongoing discussions between AACCSA and the Customs Authority are a good example of the kind of intervention required to make the rules and regulations more realistic and business-friendly.
Around the end of the last Ethiopian fiscal year, AACCSA had organized a very successful business festival and exhibition in Merkato which was visited by more than 2500 people and in which 34 producers of handicrafts products took part. The event has enjoyed the support and appreciation of the Merkato business community and has served as a good testing ground for similar events that will certainly take place in the future.
According to Ato Teferi, the provision of up top date and relevant business information to members of AACCSA is an indispensable aspect of the Chamber’s commitment. In this way, AACCSA has been disseminating timely information on import-export items, business and investment opportunities by networking with the relevant government offices and institutions. As part of this process a Business Directory has been printed in 4000 copies, as well as market studies and project profiles, and distributed them here at home and abroad. As past experience has proved it, these materials are vital sources of information in addition to the information available on local business websites although a lot remains to be done in the area of promoting e-commerce and the like.
Ato teferi was also asked about the strategic objectives of AACCSa in the new Ethiopian fiscal year. He outlined some 11 Key Result Areas that were believed to be feasible in the current fiscal year. Accordingly, Ato Teferi has outlined the following key result areas which include establishing close working relationship with business and business related associations, assigning professionals to prepare well-researched articles dealing with timely issues so that the business community would benefit from efficient methods of promoting their businesses, helping businesspeople engaged in export trade to benefit from modern information services, establishing a centre that would provide the relevant information on Ethiopian trade and investment, working closely with the Addis Ababa administration in the context of the public-private dialogue forum, generating and implementing new ideas that can help the business community, improving the standard and service of the Chamber’s training centre and promoting cooperation between local and international business institutions.
Even the best ideas would be pointless if they remain on paper and unless practical efforts are made to implement them. That was why Ato Teferi emphasized the need for the practical implementation of the strategic objectives whose implementation is already under way as we are in the second month of the new Ethiopian fiscal year. In his final remark, Ato Teferi called on the business community to work hand in hand with the Chamber Secretariat so that the key result areas could be implemented in accordance with the work program already under way.
The picture would however be incomplete without mention being made of the training programs, chamber forums and business luncheons that are scheduled to take place this Ethiopian fiscal year. According to the Coming Events information bulletin issued by AACCSA for 2009-2010, the coming events program of AACCSA presents the Chamber’s scheduled events of discussion forums, business luncheons and training for 2009-2010. The core activities of the program are presentations on various topics as well as current problems and issues of business interest. Resource persons and leaders of private, government and international organizations will make presentations followed by individual experiences of participants and lively discussions.