Creating a favorable environment for economic activities is one of the many responsibilities of a government of a nation. Fostering such endeavor will definitely bring tangible outcomes in the overall progress of the country. In order to upscale the economy of the nation, the government and responsible bodies need to work on promoting better investment schemes that have the potential to attract gigantic investment and investors who wish to invest in the country.
Whenever one thinks of investing in a country, the person inquires about the reality on the ground before making any decision regarding investing. No investor wants to put its asset in danger in a place where the investor is treated badly. To this end, it is obvious that investors take their shot to know the details of how business in the country is running.
World’s biggest institutions have formed some indictors that can help to show how things are working in a country. The best instrument could be ease of doing business index. Documents show that there are 41 different indicators that depict how business is run in a given country. With these indicators, a nation could be measured whether business is done in a better way or not. It is all about how businesses are done easily.
In the Ethiopian context, the government has taken valuable activities to attract investment to the nation by creating better and comprehensive environment. Achieving the objective of transforming the economic path from agrarian to industry led, the current incumbent has changed many procedures and regulations to make sure that everything is going smoothly for investors.
Similarly, the government of Ethiopia has established different industrial parks and other facilities across the country in order to make the nation one of the investment destinations in Africa. The government has also provided lucrative investment incentives for investors from local and foreign to invest their asset and skills in the nation.
Though the nation has a number of things to provide, the case of service delivery needs to be treated equally with the infrastructure. Investors who have started investing in the country have raised a number of queries in relation to service delivery. Such problems indeed, created unwanted consequences for other investors who want to start their business. In this regard, the government is working on taking many of its responsibilities and services to digitalization.
Making services digitalize has a tremendous advantages for both the nation and investors who come to invest. One of the many advantages of digitalizing one’s services is that it almost simplifies everything and business will be easy for both parties. Similarly, the government of Ethiopia has taken this essence of e-governance in to consideration. To make the idea into reality, the government and responsible stakeholders have been working with multiple national and international organizations.
One of the many international institutions that the government is working with, GIZ is the one. Government institutions have been working with GIZ International Services led EU- funded Business Environment and Investment Climate including E- government (BEIC) project for the exact purpose of improving the nation’s ease of doing business performance.
Previously, it was reported that multiple of government entities including Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MInT), the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), Ministry of Revenue (MoR), Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI) are working closely with GIZ’s BEIC project in creating favorable conditions for businesses.
Lately, one of the responsible ministries, Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI) signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with GIZ’s BEIC (Business Environment and Investment Climate including e-government) to make the nation’s licensing and registration process easy to investors. The MoU was signed between the Ministry’s Quality Infrastructure Assurance Sector State Minister Endalew Mekonnen and Key E-Governance Expert of the BEIC project Elie Sawaya.
The MoU incorporates a 2.4 million Euro fund through the EU funded BEIC project. The State Minister Endalew Mekonnen said that the government has been implementing numerous reforms to improve the business licensing and registration process and that all business registration processes will be done virtually starting July, 2023. In order to implement this, stakeholders in all regions including bureau heads and experts will take part in a three day long training starting from Monday, July 3, 2023.
The BEIC project’s Key E-Governance Expert Elie Sawaya, on his part, said that the MoU aims to create a seamless and efficient process to establish new businesses by creating a one stop shop and single window repository for the Ministry’s Online Trade Registration and Licensing System (OTRLS).
This system, as to Elie, will aggregate the online trade registration and licensing system with the taxpayer registration, with the competency certificate issuing agency, document authentication and registration agency in a single window. The objective of the project is to reduce the overall time and cost associated with company creation which will ultimately improve Ethiopia’s ease of doing business and economic growth.
When going live, the licensing and registration system would also provide real time updates to business license applicants on the status of their applications. Employing Key Performance Indicators, the program will monitor the time spent on each step of the application process to allow for better control and improvement in the overall process. Fostering entrepreneurship and investment, the signing of the MoU is a significant milestone in the journey towards a more business-friendly environment in Ethiopia.
As part of the MoU, the BEIC Project will provide further support to MoTRI on the operation of an Electronic Public Private Dialogue E-PPD tool, which is currently under development. The tool will add traceability and sustainability to the PPD process in Ethiopia by improving the interaction between the different stakeholders. The implementation period is from September 2023 to June 2025.
A dedicated new phone line 965 for free call was officially launched during the event to provide comprehensive information to all investors with regards to 19 services related to business licensing and registration. It’s expected that the new line will improve ease of access to information related to business licensing and registration.
The EU funded BEIC project, in addition to working with MoTRI, also collaborates with the National Bank of Ethiopia, Ministry of Revenue and Ministry of Innovation and Technology. BEIC the EU funded program being implemented by GIZ International Services in partnership with McKinsey & Company, aims to support reforms to improve the Ease of Doing Business in Ethiopia. The 5-year project is providing technical assistance and capacity building to public sector entities.
It is also supporting the establishment and modernization of e-government systems and promoting public private dialogue. The project is providing on-going support to the Ministry on integration with CCIBs, expansion of the e-trade capabilities and training and capacity building for staff.
BY DANIEL ALEMAYEHU
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 6 JULY 2023
