The Ethiopian Economics Association (EEA) held a policy dialogue forum on April 05, 2022, at Inter Luxury hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The policy forum was officially opened by Dr. Hailu Elias, executive committee member of the EEA and dean College of Business & Economics, Addis Ababa University. In his welcome address, Hailu has thanked all paper presenters, discussants and participants gathered from various government and non-government institutions for attending the event. Hailu has also confirmed EEA’s commitment to organize similar events in the future.
Two important topics were presented in the presence of 45 participants. The first topic is “Export Performance and Structural Problems in Ethiopia”. This topic was presented by Mr. Amin Abdela, a private consultant and previous EEA staff. The main objective of this dialogue is to draw views and opinions of key stakeholders on export performance and structural problems in Ethiopia, and suggest solutions for the challenges. The second policy debate was based on a research study conducted by Dr. Sisay Debebe from Addis Ababa University and Dr. Semeneh Bessie from EEA on “Private Sector Development in Ethiopia: Trends, Challenges and Policy Issues”, presented by Sisay. Following Sisay’s presentation, two prominent discussants, Mr. Endalkachew Seme, former deputy commissioner of Planning and Development and Dr. Worku Gebeyehu, from Addis Ababa university, have provided their inputs, concerns and suggestions for further improvement of the paper.
Following the two presentations and discussants’ reflections, participants have raised pertinent questions, comments and concerns that were addressed by the respective authors. Dr. Degye Goshu, director for Research and Policy Analysis has chaired the discussion.
Professor Mengistu Ketema, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the EEA has made the concluding remark and closing speech. In his concluding remark, Mengistu thanked the European Union (EU) and the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA) for sponsoring Export Performance and Structural Problems, and Private Sector Development in Ethiopia, respectively. He also acknowledged discussants, and all participants for their active participation and forwarding relevant policy inputs to the presenters. In the end, Mengistu advised the authors to capture all the relevant inputs forwarded by the discussants and participants, and promised to release policy briefs within a short period of time.
Partnership and Communication Division
