The Addis Ababa City Trade Bureau says most clothing, shoes and electronic items being sold by street vendors are sourced from contraband trade.
According to the Bureau, boutiques also negotiating with illegal street vendors to sell their items on a commission basis. The Bureau says many customs offices are culpable because they sell reimbursed properties to traders who also give the items to street vendors.
Contraband trade gets a high volume of items to street vendors illegally.
Kasuahn Mulatu, Informal trade monitoring team head at the Bureau told Capital that illegal street vending is still a major problem even though some progress has been made.
“Some shops give their products to people so they can sell them on the street. We need to work together to solve this problem. This not only includes ten institutions but land management as well. All stakeholders need to improve their efforts.”
“Sidewalk vending is currently illegal in Addis, although the Bureau is working on a comprehensive sidewalk vending program that would fully regulate it. There are 7, 168 vendors working in 121 city areas legally. However over 50,000 are still selling illegally so there is a lot of work to be done.”
To register, street vendors must present identification cards from a Kebele, and have less than 10,000 birr in capital. A registration fee of 70 Br is also mandatory. Upon registration, the vendors receive a taxpayer identification number and a badge to wear at all times while working in the marketplaces.
Street vendors hawking contraband products
Conference focuses on making democracy work
A two day long high-level dialogue conference on the challenges of transition, the reform process, current dynamics, future opportunities and challenges and risks of change was held at UNECA on August 22nd and 23rd, 2019.
The conference was opened by President Sahle Work Zewde and former South African President Thabo Mbeki who made the keynote address.
“Restoring rule of law is essential in order to maintain peace and sustain the ongoing reform process in the country,” the President underscored. Adding that there was a need for dialogue among stakeholders to have a solid ground for a strong system that could entertain unity in diversity.
The President also called for integrated efforts of all by taking advantage of the current opportunities in order to overcome challenges of transition.
Scholars from Tunisia, Yemen and the USA shared global experience on the challenges and opportunities of peaceful democratic political transition and lessons they have learned.
The theme of papers focused on the integrity and political participation of the elites, how to lead civilized competition among political parties, dealing with mechanisms of creating check and balance systems, and neutrality of security forces presented in a way to structure democratic transitions.
Two other well-known Ethiopian scholars also presented papers on the current dynamics on current Ethiopian political dynamics.
The conference was organized by the Ethiopian Foreign Relations Strategic Studies Institute, Inter African group, Centers for Dialogue, Research and Cooperation, Amani Africa and Berghof Foundation with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office.
About 200 participants from across the political, ethnic, geographical, and civic spectrum attended the event and discussed the challenges of transition and opportunities of Ethiopia’s reform process and mechanisms for managing a peaceful transition in an open and constructive manner.
“Ethiopia’s peace is important for the stability of region,” the president emphasized.
New law sets sugar standards
In the next six to twelve months, five sugar factories may finally be open for business and companies are getting ready to take part in the privatization process. Now a proclamation is being developed to create guidelines as sugar companies are taken over by private investors.
Last year the ruling party decided to partially or fully privatize its major enterprises including upcoming and established sugar factories. To regulate market participation as part of the privatization process; the sugar factories’ proclamation is being written.
According to a report from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) the proclamation’s main goal is regulating the production, trade, administration and import/export of the sweet.
Currently only the government is allowed to trade sugar, however, a few years ago the product started being distributed via periodical auction through major bidders. The government would then distribute sugar to the general public. The sugar auction process has been criticized for its vulnerability to corruption which caused prices to rise at public markets.
Sugar is currently distributed by consumer associations and retail shops but hording, artificial scarcity and price hikes still hinder the sugar market.
The government is also the sole importer of the product, which many industries use for beverages, candies, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
The draft proclamation hints that the private sector may be involved in importing the sweet.
Currently about 13 sugar industries exist in the country three of them are the oldest and the balance are mainly undergoing trial tests, in the finalization stages or were constructed in the past few years.
To facilitate the privatization process of the sugar factories, the Ministry of Finance has been undertaking a valuation of the Sugar Corporation’s assets, conducting factory capacity assessments and carrying out environmental impact assessments on each factory.
MoF indicated that the privatization of from five to 6 sugar factories would be finalized in the coming six to 12 months.
A recent Request for Information (RFI), most of the companies said they were interested in the oldest factories, according to sources. Following an April RFI several international companies, expressed an interest in privatizing Ethiopia’s sugar factories. However, only one local company Ethio Sugar Manufacturing Industry is adopting a community inclusive business model.
Companies from Kenya, Mauritius, UAE, Morocco, South Africa, Algeria and elsewhere expressed interest and presented business models.
In the process of selling 49 percent of its the telecom monopoly and adding two competitors the government has formed the Communication Supervision Authority. The authority will control and govern the operation.
According to the plan Ethio Telecom will be split into two; an infrastructure developer and a service provider/ administrator. The valuation work is also ongoing.
The telecom and sugar industries are expected to be the major sectors in the mega privatization process which includes the Ethiopian Airlines and the only continental cross continent public shipping company, Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise.
Hawassa Industrial Park to double staff
Hawassa Industrial Park, the country’s flagship industrial park plans to double its workforce from 27,000 to 60,000 next year.
Fitsum Ketema, General Manager of Hawassa Industrial Park told Capital that all available 52 factory sheds were transferred to 21 international companies. Some are yet to fully embark on their operations amid ongoing machine instillation work.
The government has invested a lot in these parks hoping it would create jobs and bring in foreign currency. Although the jobs have come, many pay extremely low wages.
According to a report by the New York Stern Center for Business and Human Rights despite the garment market’s growth, Ethiopian garment factory workers are, on average, the lowest paid in the world. They earn around 26 USD per month, far too little to cover basic needs like housing, shelter and food.
Fitsum says the industrial park is designed to create jobs, bring in foreign currency, and transfer technology. Fitsum also emphasized the park’s indirect economic benefits to Hawassa city and its surroundings.
That is why the government is also improving Hawassa’s connectivity with the extension of the Addis-Adama highway to Hawassa, the construction of a domestic airport, and the extension of the Addis – Modjo – Djibouti railway to Hawassa.
For the just completed fiscal year, the country was able to export 110 million USD worth of products from the industrial park which is up by 35 percent compared with the previous year, The Corporation failed to achieve its target for the budget year due to instability in some parts of the country, according to the Industrial Park Development Corporation.
Built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), the Hawassa Industrial Park was completed in a record time of nine months, and inaugurated back in July 2016.
Ethiopia wants to be the manufacturing hub of Africa by 2025, so they have focused on building industrial parks to increase foreign exchange earnings. It plans to build 30 industrial parks in the near future.
