BY LAKACHEW ATINAFU
Borrowing the word from the English dictionary and most notably explained by Charles Dickens the fog seemed to be the manifestation of Ethiopia. Politicians played their card bad and their by lots of the citizenry labeled as country less in their home.
What a paradox it might be, lamentation could never be a solution, neither the prophet nor son of god will avail themselves to alleviate every pieces of crime son of man could do in its toil.
The Ethiopian government has recently disclosed that it has financed staggering amount of money to back the economy and vow to fix situations to the clock back that it meant assuring the better from the worst way of living.
To effectuate this, it reiterate to increase its budget to 700 billion Birr +, however the budget allocation will go to the prioritized sectors remain in limbo.
The Ethiopian Herald has invited relevant bodies to react on the government’s intention regarding allocation of the new budget to be allocated to fix the overall complications.
Wossenseged Assefa, an Economist and Media Contributor had a short stay with The Ethiopian Herald. Upon the moment, he said; “if you have more money theses money would ran after letter amount of supply in the market this in turn creates inflations.”
However the government is ambitious to levy taxes and aspires to fix the economy and manages its dedication by showing a figure gauging 786.61 billion Birr, the situation creates problematic situations upon the tax payers as the main source of the state budget is generated from internal source. Increasing the tax and pressuring tax payers by itself is another sort of adding complication to the state in hazard.
On the same token, the country put in place to get on truck of development relaying on grants, loans and aids sourced from abroad. Nonetheless, such sources are remained in war, pandemic and post traumatic situation resulted from. Even though, if it is possible to gain the money from abroad without compromising national sovereignty, it would be even should be welcomed positively to balance the budget deficit. So the government is urged not to print money and advised not to inject to the market rather it should focus to product and productivity sectors.
Similarly, an Economics Scholar from Addis Ababa University said that only agree to speak to the reporter for the purpose of anonymity insisted that the question that maters should not be the volume of budget but rather focusing on to which areas of priority it is allocated .
Regarding the budget, the government said there has been 16 percent of increment, but scholars saw it from another polar thinking time value of money. According to the scholar, the budget which is currently being seen as staggering is even below the budget vis-à-vis last years in terms of econometrics terms.
The Scholar unveiled that, the incumbent has to focus on production and productivity, supply and the manufacturing industry and urged to investigate the construction sector which revealed to be service sector as time gone by.
Government’s expenditure, financing priority and budget policy would be the questions that matters in deciding the fate of the nation. The other side which is not explicated by the government is where the budget will going to. “The macroeconomic trend is like sailing a ship not a car as you can’t escape an iceberg in front”. Hence the macroeconomic problems would never be alleviated in short time spans and the country’s problems are structural and need the commitment of the government inviting actors in particular economists in setting the country’s fate in formulating policies and strategies.
The scholar finally stressed that peace and stability is of paramount importance for the wellbeing of the country and regulatory organizations like national security forces shall be free from politics. And Statesmen are advised to refrain from promoting comfort zones even though sensuous beauty adds something to the country.
Again, the question that matters is the manufacturing sector which could transcend the country to the first step of the ladder of development. In connection with this, it would be to scale up best practices of inspired youth who aspired to eat bread upon their sweat and contribute something for the posterity.
Thus, the government needs to back local initiatives started by ambitious youngsters and entrepreneurs to reach some kind of solution and to put the clock back to the well being of the nation.
Hence, Investing on product and productivity and adding gear to the manufacturing sector which could be the main driving force for structural transformation shall be taken as issue of priority.
The government of Ethiopia should take the manufacturing sector as a focal point. In this regard Statesmen have to reinforce youngsters with innovative idea and tempt hands, thus the budget supposed to be allocate in the coming time must to merely reach the manufacturers. The share of it ought to weigh the service and other sectors.
In this regard, it would be appropriate to raise an instance and to support home grown economies. Therefore, backing locally incepted ideas is of paramount importance than playing with numbers.
It is also important to see some instances began in the country; Yared Estifanos, General Manager of Yared Metal and Spare Parts Machinery Productions, which has been in operation for many years, the workaholic attitude and innovative idea have kept him in the industry. He started working in 2003 and are said to have been involved in car repair before the manufacturing was established.
According to him, the company was set up in the past due to lack of spare parts due to the limited production of cars in the country. The work done to solve the problem of making modify spare parts has grown into a complete production of spare parts for eight years. He produces car parts.
Various financial institutions, such as South Global Bank; Various individuals who wish to use the product; Institutions that require hall chairs are their customers, for example, bread machines, mills, soap manufacturer, paper machines, small household appliances; coffee dryer. He explained that any coffee machine that can be used by coffee customers for the general purpose of operation is in operation. “When we receive orders for each job, we understand the customer’s needs and carefully design and enter the product.”
According to Yared, most of the products that can be used to replace imported products can be supplied to customers in large quantities and individually and the budget allocation should consider such firms that help the nation save hard currency.
He said that he uses re-melt /recycled metals as raw materials to substitute imported inputs. These discarded items are outdated car parts; the metals that caterpillars collect; According to Yared, he will melt the by-products of the metal from kilograms and melt them together.
Despite the current focus on domestic products, Yared said he plan to further produce products by export standard which contributes to forex earning instead of expending the hardly gained hard currency for importation. He pointed out that in view of the current situation in the country, their financial situation is stagnant. He said that despite the lack of capacity, he will be able to produce various products and export them quickly. It has been years since various industries were established to create small and medium enterprises, from small and micro enterprises.
In addition to creating job opportunities for many, the sectors are also contributing to the country’s economy that necessitates the budget allocation must consider such kind of efforts, it was learned.
The Ethiopian Herald June 10/2022
