From left: Girma Birru, minister of Trade and Industry; Eyessuswork Zafu, president of Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectorial Assocation; Ahmed Tusa and Taddesse Haile, state ministers of Trade and Industry, in an impromptu meeting signaling the public-private forums to come.

The private sector is to get access to the Prime Minister on a regular basis to address their concerns based on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) and the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association (ECCSA) on Thursday, July 8, 2010.

Previously, the private sector only got to meet with the Prime Minister in cases of pressing matters. Now, through this MoU, members of the private sector will get to hold a national business consultative conference once every year to address their issues. This is on top of two federal public-private forums with top government officials as well as another four forums with officials from different ministries, agencies, and authorities to be held each year.

The agendas of the forums are to concentrate on policy and legal problems in investment, infrastructure, tax, tourism, transport, land administration, services, and trade.

These forums are also expected to create dialogue on the process of Ethiopia’s ascension to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

“The public-private partnership will help draft a common stand on many issues which are subject to negotiations in the process of ascension,” said Gashaw Debebe, secretary-general of the ECCSA.

We will also be able to address matters like tax, which has been a pressing issue in the business community, he said. [Addis Fortune]