BY ABEBE WOLDEGIORGIS
The sectorial association proclamation Promulgated in 2002/3 has various problems which need improvement and the association’s members forwarded their plea to the government for the last 20 years that “The proclamation combined trade sector associations and councils have its own inherent problems.” Said the members and they are putting pressure to the pertinent government organ the proclamation to be amended in an organized manner.
They mentioned that some of the articles in the proclamation which pose problems were discussed particularly by organizing discussion platform by the Addis Ababa and Ethiopian chamber of commerce. Though the problems are still known by the officials they are not addressed yet.
The proclamation which was introduced 20 years ago stipulates the establishment of the association forcefully which resulted in weak association. Hence, demanding the introduction of new proclamation to redress the problem has been taken as a way out. The proclamation gave various responsibilities to the sectorial associations to federal, regions, woreda, zones and city administration levels which made vulnerable to pose conflict between them.
According to the Addis Ababa sectorial associations’ council arbitration institution lawyer Yohaness woldegebriel, the proclamation from its conception has its own problem. The proclamation intended to meet the political interest of the then ruling party to divide the business community. Wube mengistu is the Ethiopian trade sectorial association secretary. As to him, efforts have been exerted for long years to improve the proclamation. In the preparation of the new draft law, the chamber of commerce sectorial association, the government organ and the private sector are participated and the draft law was sent to the former Ministry of Trade and Industry .The other countries’ experiences also taken as input for the improvement of the law. He further said that, now the draft law reached to its final stage and hoped it will be endorsed soon by the parliament.
As to Wube, the existing proclamation has articles that hamper the chambers’ healthy activities. The proclamation provided power to the chambers in the various levels such as on federal, regions and city level with similar jurisdiction which put them in contradiction and conflict. In addition, there are other problems which restrict their activities.
Some business men also still complain that the new draft law has its own limitations to redress the problems of the old proclamation and they believed that the new draft law does very little difference from the old proclamation. In fact, there is a change on the name of the proclamation but content wise, there is no difference from the previous one. Particularly the city chambers are neglected by the new draft law and have no space to air their views. Therefore, before the endorsement of the proclamation the members of the chambers should discuss the matter.
As to Yohaness, the city chambers are the base for chambers at regional and federal level. Hence, special attention must be paid to them. He further said that the existing proclamation weakened the business community and the ruling party used the proclamation to fragment the chambers at various levels. Therefore, the preparation of the new proclamation should consider this and be cautious not to repeat the past mistakes. As compared to the EPRDF era chamber of commerce, the Derg chamber proclamation was better and rational.
As to him, the Derg proclamation allows the establishment of various national and city level chambers but the proclamation introduced by the EPRDF was divisive and similar to election board determined the organizational structure of the federal and regional chambers association beforehand and denies the organizational norms. According to the law, criminal law is promulgated by the federal government; the same is true to the election board. Both laws are emanated from the constitutional mandate but introducing proclamation to divide chambers is an ill motive. It shaped and structures similar to the political parties pattern. Therefore, it can be said that, the proclamation does not deserve the chambers of commerce.
He further said that the proclamation put the organizational structures of the association to deter the private sector not to have a consolidated stance to defend its rights. In addition, it was prepared to meet EPRDF political aspiration which bases divide and rule by advancing ethnic politics.
Fekadu Petros, a lawyer agreed with what Yohanes said and as to him, the chamber of commerce proclamation related with political questions. When the Ruling party assumed power in the 1991, it tried to organize the chambers similar with its fake federalism administration but business and trade has nothing to do with federalism. Traders have the right to organize their association based on their profession not to that of political ambition. The proclamation also has a tendency to create rift between the traders engaged in service sector and that of the producing sector.
He also said that the business community often complained the structural organization of their chamber which left them fragmented. The previous ruling party dominated by TPLF was busily engaged in dividing segments of the society and slander them. For example, business men engaged in service provision and bankers were categorized as rent collectors and the preparation of the proclamation was ill-intended to subjugate the business community. On the other hand, Garage owners, shoe producers, wind mill workers were given special privilege that amazes others business community.
As it is known, the financial sector plays pivotal role in the economic activities but the chambers establishing proclamation does not recognize the bank professional association. They were obliged to be registered as if they were none governmental organization and force fully registered by the agency working on the non- governmental organization affairs.
However, the proclamation gave emphasis for the wind mill and other related associations but ignored the service delivery sector only to divide the business communities. The other complains raised by the traders is that the proclamation prepared intentionally to divide the associations based on their region. The other question which should be answered by the new proclamation is that, whether the member registration is based on their volunteer or not.
Regarding membership, Wube said that for the time being membership registration better to be an obligatory and later on it can be improved. He also said that in the world chambers of commerce with almost 2/3 countries membership, membership is obligatory and in this modality members exert their responsibilities by paying monthly financial contribution and enabled to protect their rights from government intervention and enhanced their bargaining power.
According to the Ethiopian law being membership is governed by voluntarism and mentioned other criterion in details. This approach again creates confusion. Hence, if the government decides to make membership through voluntarism, it has to allocate some form of budget to run their day to day activities but it is not still implemented. Or to make them self- reliance creating enabling environment to generate their own income can be taken as alternate mechanism.
Hunilign Tigabu works in Addis Ababa Trade Sectorial Association and serves as a board member. As to him, the major problems which weaken the associations integrity by previous ruling party was that, installing fake association in parallel way by the so called “the EPRDF Supporters Traders Association” and by others name. Few business men allied themselves with the ruling party left the main association fragmented. Therefore, such practices must be halted by the new proclamation.
As to Fikadu, strong association can be established when the associations are functional independently free from the government intervention. Wube on the other hand said that as per their capacity they tried to utilize new ideas suggested by members and other stakeholders to utilize as input so that to promulgate better new proclamation and cautiously worked not to repeat the past mistakes. He further said that in the last budget year efforts are exerted to better prepare the new proclamation and the final draft law will be sent to the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration for endorsement. However, if it is delayed more, the members of the associations will be desperate and felt as if they are neglected by the government.
“Independently organized chambers play pivotal role not only for the economic growth but also for building democratic system,” Wube said. Hence, the members will continue coercing the government for the speedy endorsement of the new proclamation.
State Minister of Trade and Regional Integration, Teshale Belihu, while attending the recently held meeting of the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce said that his Ministry is rigorously working for the endorsement of the new proclamation in this budget year. But still whether the new proclamation is fairly prepared as they need or not is their concern. As to Fekadu, the new proclamation should uplift the status of the business community and the chambers as well.
The draft proclamation named “The Trade and Industry Chambers establishing Proclamation” has 35 articles with to components namely the Ethiopian Trade and Industry Chambers and the regional Trade and Industry Chambers and their members can be individual business men, Private Limited Companies’ Associations, Share Holding Companies’ Associations, manufacturing Industries’ Associations and Trade Sector Associations.
The Ethiopian Trade and Industries Chambers also have members from regional Trade and Industry chambers and the national manufacturing Industries Sectorial Associations are going to be established by the directives of the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration. But some still doubt that such type of organization might pose problems and comprising cities chambers in this arrangement might be worrisome.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 25 OCTOBER 2022
