BY WOSSENSEGED ASSEFA
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister has recently come up with the idea of redecorating and renovating our working environment. Consequently, all government officials are following in his footsteps in terms of remodeling their work environment and making it look more attractive to visitors. Due to different work-related conditions, I myself have had the opportunity to visit many of them.
My job has led me to the doorsteps of different ministers, state ministers and city administration officials on countless occasions. As an economist and entrepreneur, I couldn’t help but notice that in all of these offices, the furniture used is imported from foreign countries.
The chairs, desks, shelves and other office equipment are all imported from different European and Asian countries. Even when I went to technical and vocational education and training (TVET) centers, I couldn’t find domestic furniture being used in the offices. As a result of what I saw, a few questions popped up in my mind. Why don’t we use domestically produced furniture at least in public sectors and government offices?
We have several individuals graduating from TVET colleges every year who produce domestic furniture and provide it to the market at a relatively cheaper price; why doesn’t the government promote their product and buy it if it’s the one to certify them and declare them qualified?
The graduation ceremonies of the trainees is held publicly and broadcasted through different media outlets, and even at times, a few government officials are present. What have they been trained for, if in the end, we fail to buy their products and promote them to the public?
Although the idea of renovating and beautifying our working environment is decent, why do we need foreign furniture items for beautification when we could use our own? In fact, when I went to one of the offices of a certain city administration official, I admired the beauty of the office itself and told him how beautiful it was; immediately, he started vaunting about the different pieces of furniture he imported from other countries, how he got them and where he got them from.
At the same time, he himself is the one invited as a guest of honor on the graduation day of the TVET trainees. Deep inside, I felt ashamed of how highly he thought of the foreign products in his office and I also realized that it is a common thing in our country to exalt imported products above the domestic ones.
One of the major reasons we overprize imported products above our own is because they are made in finer qualities and have better aesthetic value.
To the consumer, quality and beauty are the most essential elements of the product. Finer quality and better aesthetics mean more demand. But if we are to be honest, the starting point of most foreign manufacturers and producers was not as elevated as it is now.
Most started with the production and distribution of lower quality goods and worked their way up by upgrading their products when they gained more domestic consumers and financial support either from their government, other sponsors or investors who were attracted to their business ideas.
As a result, they were able to hire specialists and even open up research and development offices to order various kinds of designs and choose the best from among them.
Nowadays, they have gone as far as importing raw materials from less developed countries such as our own and exporting the product back to us at a much higher price.
Although I acquired the thought from the furniture items I saw in different offices, the problem of choosing to import products over buying our own doesn’t just stop there. Most foods and drinks sold in different supermarkets are imported as well.
For example, most of the juices sold in various supermarkets are produced in Arab countries. Where do they get the fruits from? African countries. Who do they finally sell their products to? African countries again.
They take leather materials from us for a cheap price and give us back various types of clothing and shoes at a much-elevated price. As a result, we end up being economically dependent on foreign countries when all we have to do is support our own producers financially so that their products will be upgraded as well to a level of competence on national and international markets.
When we automatically set our mind to choose to buy foreign products rather than support our own, we are mentally and economically colonized to depend on them. In the past, colonization used to be political. It used to involve trading slaves for a cheap price and using them in works requiring physical labor.
It had a visible form and as a result, it was met with a high level of resistance and abolished in the end. But now, it has taken a different form. It involves the mental and economic colonization of third world nations and their governments so that we tune our minds to the idea that foreign products are and will always be better than our own; thus being dependent on foreign products for consumption.
This type of colonization is harder to beat because it requires a change in our mindset regarding the perspective we have of domestic and imported goods.
My argument is not that importing goods from other countries is a bad idea; but rather that we don’t always have to choose their products when we could scale up our own and make it competitive enough. For example, companies in the private sector have not only the financial capacity, but also the moral right to buy imported goods
because they are based on individuals or groups of individuals who have the right to invest in any way they want in their country. But public sectors involve government-based institutions which are established based on the aim of primarily promoting domestic products and building the moral and financial capacity of domestic producers.
It almost sounds too hypocritical for a government official to promote his/her country’s products to the international market when he/she isn’t using them in their own offices and departments. What does it say about a government if it has certified individuals from TVET institutions and yet never uses or promotes their items? Even when you go to kebele offices, you can see imported furniture items. So who buys the products of domestic producers and manufacturers?
What kind of market is available for them to compete in? How can they grow if they have a very small number of consumers and little to no financial support? In the end, all of these reasons will discourage the domestic producers and throw them off of the market.
We can’t solve problems related to unemployment with actions that actually create unemployment. If we are not confident with and proud of our own domestically produced goods and services, who else would?!
Overall, I believe that investing in our own product is investing in the future. We should start by allowing domestic producers such as TVET centers to produce and manufacture products that could be used in public sectors and governmental organizations and even go as far as promoting their products to domestic and foreign investors to help them gain the financial support they need to compete in the market.
We should promote and advertise their works on different media and social media outlets. We should create an environment in which they can compete with one another and try to come up with the best products they can offer to the market.
Rather than trying to just employ individuals in certain companies, we should work on attracting different investors from the private sector to invest in their ideas and products. This will grant confidence to the producer and benefits to the consumer.
The Ethiopian Herald February 25/2021
