Talking about a better life, it is crucial to equip people with the most advanced technologies. The people of a country should be treated in the way that the necessary services should be served at their door steps. To achieve this, the use of technology and transforming the system to a digital should be the first step to be taken.
Unlike most developed nation across the world, nations in the third world have been accused of lack of delivering services that meet the needs of the people. So as to curb such difficulties, the best way could be finding a system to deliver services that could be easily applicable and accessible to the customer. In this regard, the essence of digitalization and e- governance might be the ideal way to bring the sought after outcome.
In the present climate, the government of Ethiopia has been working on transforming the nation and its system to be a technology assisted. Realizing digital Ethiopia, accordingly, is one of the core objectives of the current incumbent. The government and responsible stakeholders have been working on achieving the objective of realizing the digital nation that is assisted by e- governance and ease of doing business ideas.
In the past few months, selected government Ministerial Offices have been working on a project that is designed to help the government bringing e- governance and ease of doing business. The Technical Assistance for Business Environment and Investment Climate, including e-government (BEIC), the EU funded program which is implemented by GIZ International Services in partnership with McKinsey & Company, is working on supporting national reforms to improve the Ease of Doing Business and E- governance in Ethiopia.
It is to be recalled, multiple 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) have been working closely with GIZ’s BEIC project in creating favorable conditions for businesses.
Not only working closely with the project implementation, it is not long ago that Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI) has 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 and the BEIC Project that incorporates a 2.4 million Euro fund through the EU funded BEIC project.
Recently, the project conducted a training session to selected staff members from the Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MInT) and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and tested the platform at an event organized at Ramada Addis.
The project of e- governance and ease of doing business has been carried on to multiple phases to be more applicable and bringing it into action. In this point, the country is preparing to unveil the nation’s inaugural electronic consultation platform for the consultation of draft laws. The Business Environment and Investment Climate (BEIC), including e-government project is supporting the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) by spearheading the development of the platform.
The ministry engages in a consultation process with various stakeholders when the inception of new legislations takes form. The electronic consultation portal, designed by BEIC, will simplify this process through digitalization, enabling all citizens in Ethiopia, including members of the private sector to provide comments, opinions and propose changes on the draft laws.
The electronic platform will facilitate consultations on draft proclamations, including directives and regulations that are initiated by government institutions. The objective of having the portal is to create inclusiveness and transparency in the regulatory preparation of laws and introduce a complete traceability in the legislation process.
The initiative is expected to enhance the quality of the legislation process in Ethiopia, as it will enable all stakeholders to offer transparent feedback in a user-friendly manner. The interactive portal also contributes to promoting electronic democracy in the country by providing a convenient platform where people can express their opinions on laws to be drafted and influence decision making processes.
Having a stay with The Ethiopian Herald, Key expert to e- governance, Elie Sawaya recalled that the objective of the project is to improve the ease of doing business in Ethiopia. As to him, the project has several pillars which might be different according to the institutions’ need. From those pillars, the project is working on access to credit with the National Bank of Ethiopia to improve the system. With Ministry of Revenue, the project helps the ministry on improving the taxpaying systems. Again, with Ministry of Innovation and Technology, the project helps on digitalization. The project is also assisting Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration on maximizing company creation process.
Elie further mentioned that they are working with Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MInT) and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on creating the E- consultation portal. “The E- consultation portal has been developed and now available. The portal is used as a tool to create inclusiveness and transparency in the law drafting process. There is a request from both ministries,” the expert added.
The portal, as to the expert, will allow any citizen to give comments and recommendations on any law that has been drafted. A drafted law that has not been acted on yet will be available for all citizens in order to comment, and the ministry who is in charge of drafting the law will also able to reply for those comments and recommendations.
“The e- consultation portal will help the nation to create a corner stone for electronic democracy.” It is also an important initiative from the Government of Ethiopia in order to create more inclusiveness and transparency in the law drafting process, Elie Elaborated.
The project is working with multiple government ministries like the Ministry of Justice coupled with other private sector associations such as the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectorial Association, European Chamber of Commerce.
“Speaking of the E-consultation platform, we are working with the Ministry of Justice on business law making side and with the Ministry of Innovation and Technology on technical implementation part.” The impact of the portal is mainly creating inclusiveness and transparency that will lead to a better environment for law drafting, Elie said.
According to Elie, the purpose of the event is to deliver training for Ministry of Justice on the application and for Ministry of Innovation and Technology on the management of the application. Both agents from both ministries will test the portal to validate aligned with their objectives and requirements in order to move to the final phase where it will be deployed all over Ethiopia. It will also shorten the distance between the federal government and all the regions as the nation is very big.
Elie also noted that they will further implement different platforms. We are working with the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectorial Association to create an electronic public- private dialogue (PPD) platform to achieve the set objectives,” the expert said.
By the same token, the portal’s software developer, Wubetu Shiferaw, on his part said that the platform will foster people’s participation on drafting laws. Previously, the process was implemented manually and it was very expensive and hard to apply. However, this electronic portal will curb those challenges and create more access for all part of the community to take part on the process.
In order to use the platform, Wubetu elucidated, first the institution that drafts the law will publish or post it on the platform in order to introduce it to the public. Then, any citizen can give its opinion and comments. After that stakeholders who drafted the law will revise it carefully and it will be endorsed to become the law enacted.
BY DANIEL ALEMAYEHU
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2023
