Forum for Social Studies (FSS) organized a public debate on the issue of transferring state enterprises to the private sector on Thursday September 19, 2019 at Azemman Hotel Addis Ababa.
In his opening remarks during the dialogue event, Dr. Yeraswork Admassie, Executive Director of FSS, noted that organizing forums for discussion and debates on issues of national concern was at the heart of FSS ideals in building a democratic and economically viable state. He said that since its establishment some 22 years ago, FSS has organized several public dialogue programs, and disseminated their outputs via among the wider public the print and broadcast media.
The Executive Director noted that, cognizant of the fact that Ethiopia is currently undergoing reform processes that require inputs from informed public debates on important issues of concern, FSS is currently playing its part in this by conducting a six-event dialogue series under the overall title “Clarifying the Uncharted Routes of Ethiopia’s Transition towards Democracy”, of which this was the fourth.
Two discussion papers that argued for and against the proposed privatization of major state enterprises,were presented by Dr Brook Taye (Senior Advisor at the Ministry of Finance) and MrKebour Ghenna (a well-known entrepreneur). Both presentations were excellentin content, form and delivery, and much appreciated by participants of the event.
In his presentation Dr. Brook described the current situation of many of the state owned enterprises as being inefficient and in debt ridden and in need of technical and capital injection. He noted that the privatization of major state enterprises such as Ethio-Telecom is only one aspect of a wider economic reform program that the government is anticipating — and must be seen as such. Dr. Brook also said the government is currently working hard to establish the legal framework for privatization of Ethio-Telecom, which involves the restructuring the company to make the sale attractive to buyer, and that the next steps will be to work on the format of the transaction, appraise the assets, and develop the criteria for tendering before selling its shares to the highest bidder/s.
MrKebourGhenna, on his part, said that while he was not at all against privatization in principle, he does not consider the privatization of enterprises such as Ethio-Telecom to be un urgent economic imperative‘’ for the country. He noted that role of privatization of telecom companies in growth and development was mixed, and that there is no need to rush.Thus he stressed the need to be cautious in the process, saying other venues must be explored, as privatization is not the only solution. He then added that, even if privatization is mandatory, then questions such as whether it should proceed before the enterprise given the chance to reform itself and be competitive, a market-oriented framework is established first, and other questions such as who stands to benefit from the privatization are considered. He also pointed out that clarity is needed regarding issues such as for what purposes the income from the sale of Ethio-Telecom will be used.
During the lively discussion session that ensued, participants reflected on various aspects of the topic, by forwarding their comments and asking questions to which the presenters responded.
In his closing remarks, Dr. YearsworkAdmassie thanked the presenters for accepting to preparetheir papers at short notice and doing such a fine job, Dr. AlemayuehuSeyoum for chairing the event competently, as well as the participants for making time to attend and actively contribute to the dialogue.
Dr. Yeraswork concluded by noting that even though the issue of privatization of the nation’s major enterprises was passionately debated during the half-day event, it was done so without the intent of proving the opposite vies wrong, but rather, to clearly articulate differences in order to find common ground and thereby contribute towards the generation of alternative policy options.He said, the objective of FSS’sdialogue forumsbeing the development of informed and cultured debate by government officials, politicians, researchers, CSO activists and the media on very important national issue such as the one addressed in the course of the day, the organization is pleased with the conduct of the days business in a productive and amicable manner.
Some 125 participants drawn from the government ministries, enterprises, civil society and media professionals attended the event that was widely covered by the country’s reputable state and private media outlets, such as the following:
TV stations: Fanatv, Waltatv Ahadu tv, Nahootv, ARYS TV
FM radios: Sheger FM 102.1, Ethio FM, Ahadu Radio 104.3, Fana FM.
Print: The Reporter, Amharic, The Daily Monitor
Web based media: MMM, etc Addis Business Review
The debate program was the forth in a raw that was held by FSS as part of the dialogue series being organized under the main theme of: Ethiopia’s democratic reforms, actions, impacts and options (ዲሞክራሲዊ የለውጥ ጉዞ በኢትዮዽያ፤–የለውጥ እርምጃዎች፤እንድምታዎቻቸውና አማራጮች) Ethiopia’s Road towards Democratic Reforms
Topics from political, economic landscape and foreign relations have been identified and two topics from each group were selected for discussion and debate.
The following are the topics under the series.
- Ethnic base Federalism and The Constitution, ( ዲሞክራሲዊ የለውጥ ብሔር ተኮር ፌደራሊዝምና ህገመንግስት)
- Political Parties, National Election and Peoples Representation in Ethiopia (የፖለቲካ ፓርቲዎች ህዝባዊ ምርጫና የህዝብ ውክልና በኢትዮዽያ )
- Macro-Economic Policy and the role of the state in the economy (የማክሮ ኢኮኖሚ ፖሊሲ እና በኢኮኖሚ ውስጥ የመንግሰት ሚና)
- Privatization of State enterprises and Structural Reform of the Economy (የመንግስት የልማት ድርጅቶችን ወደ ግሉ ክፍ ለኢኮኖሚ ማዛወርና የኢኮኖሚ መዋቅር ማሻሻያ)
- Ethiopia’s foreign policy on the horn of Africa and the Middle East ( የኢትጵያ የውጭ ጉዳይ ፖሊሲ በአፍሪካ ቀንድና መካከለኛው ምስራቅ)
- Utilization of the Nile Resources and Ethiopia’s Foreign Policy (የአባይ ወንዝ ውሀ አጠቃቀምና የኢትዮጵያ የውጭ ጉዳይ ፖሊሲ)
The last two dialogue events on topic (Topic 5 and 6) will be held at Azemman Hotel, on, respectively, October 24, 2019 and November 21, 2019)