‘Having Public-Centered Investment Mentality leads to Economic collapse’ Snr. Policy Researcher
Gov’t to redefine the role of the Pvt. Sector. Planning Commissioner
The public sector alone cannot afford continuous economic development in the country said Telaye Kassahun,(PhD). The government rather should be limited to in regulatory and controlling activities, he added during the 2nd panel discussion organized by Addis Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association 16August, 2016 at Hilton hotel.
In Ethiopia, the government takes the largest share of investment. That gives rise to the control of development growth of the country , the Senior Researcher noted. Huge investments are always made by the government in the country, the researcher added. On the other hand, the private sector now we have, he said, is underdeveloped. Therefore, there is a great risk leading to a situation, where once the government losses interest to invest, the country’s economy may catastrophically collapse. The public investment currently heavily dependent on China, he noted. This again may cause a foreseeable collapse on investment, if China changes its mind. It is for these and others reasons, that the need for advancing the private investment mentality is important for sustained economic development, Telaye said. Continued corruption involving public offices is also posing challenge against the private sector
Eyob Tekalegn, National Planning Commissioner of the FDRE, who was also a panelist in reference to the private sector and the GTP, said that the government looking for strong culture of public-private cooperation. The government has separately designated the private sector as an engine to the national economy in an effort towards industrialization, the commissioner said. A series of consultations were made involving stakeholder over the performance of the GTP-2. The feedbacks show there are huge gaps in major economic performances such as export, macroeconomic instability and foreign debt. Gaps accounted in the major economic performances over the last years under GTP -2 are calling for serious action. The importance of the private sector is not only for economic performance but also shouldering the burden of unemployment, Eyob said.
As was the reform in the politics was made, now the government is working seriously on ways to redefine the role private sector in the economic development process, the Commissioner added.
The Commission is now drafting a 10 year development planning where all stakeholder would participate including the private sector. To that end a new economic advisory team reporting to the Prime Minister has been set up to speed up the process. Other thematic topics included ‘Private Sector and the Current Ethiopian Economy Challenges: Private Sector and the Tax System’ by: Amin Abdella ‘Challenges Against Export Performance’ by Million Bogale; “Tax System: Challenges on Privates Sector and Possible Solution” by Tesfaye Mergia. Several intervention were forwarded from the audience coming from different walks of life and to which explanations were given by panelist.