Teshome Beyene is secretary general of the newly established Public-private Consultation Forum (PPCF) secretariat. Teshome, who has years of service as president of  Mekelle Chamber and the secretary general of the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association in his resume, took over the new post only few months back.

Following the memorandum of understanding between the Chamber and the ministry of Trade, the first federal PPCF was conducted last February, where the private sectors’ representatives face-off with tax authorities at the Hilton Hotel. However, what was thought to be a biannual event did not took place for  close to year now and Asrat Seyoum of The Reporter talked to the new man in charge about the secretariat and the future fate of the PPCF.  

The last consultation forum was conducted before the liaisons, both the secretariat and the special unit at MoT, took shape. What happened since then?

The forum was mainly immersed in the process of setting up the PPCF secretariat. Primarily, we were conversing with different organizations to secure funds. In this regard, the private sector arm of the World Bank, International Finance Cooperation (IFC) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) helped out a lot. On the other hand, staffing was also another task. Familiarizing ourselves with concept of private-public consultation forum and how it could be conducted also consumed some of our time.

The Memorandum of Understating stipulated that the federal PPCF should be conducted at least biannually. And the last forum organized at Hilton Hotel was more than six months old. Why did you miss the time table?

I must say it is all about the administrative issues surrounding the establishment of the secretariat. The original plan when the forum took place last February was to set up the secretariat immediately after meeting and to let it take over and organize the following forums. But, it was after seven months that the secretariat saw the light of day. Furthermore, after its establishment the secretariat itself had the task to organize its in-house matters thoroughly before fully engaging in the job. On the other hand, before setting a date for the meeting we had to select a pertinent agenda topic and get prepared. The task of molding the topics of discussions and the various agendas within that topic is not as trivial as it sound. And we should not forget that federal consultation forum is not only be a scene that we should be prepared for. There are a number of sectorial forums where a specific government body that is directly accountable to the specific sector and the private counterparts sits and talks. Anyway, at the moment we are finalizing preparations to conduct one sectorial and one federal consultation forums with in the coming months.

What about the PPCF unit at MoT?

We are corresponding to the unit constantly to make the two forums a reality. In fact, conducting the meetings is not subjected to the decision of either the private or public bodies; it has been inked by the two parties previously. However, we correspond to check the suitability of the timing to set the date and alert participants. The case of the sectorial forums, we inform the unit at MoT about the theme of the discussion and it will accordingly select the pertinent government body and alert it.

I understand that the secretariat has chosen the trade registration and business licensing proclamation to be the topic of the next federal consultation forum. What is the basis of selecting agenda topics for such big dialogue forums?

For the time being we rely on the chambers and the business community to capture the right agenda for discussion. We inquire into the businesses and the envelop chambers to find out the burning issues and table them at the forum. But, the right approach, which is something that we are working on at the moment, is devised a strong national business agenda. In fact, it is not something new. It was present before but it has to be revised and enforced. The concept is nothing but preparing some sort of a booklet where the detail of business problems in country will be complied properly. Hence, when we are looking for agenda topics we can pick one up; update it with further research and present it to the forum.

Including the last private-public dialogue forum in most meetings where the two parties sat and debate out their issues, strong points and practical difficulties in doing business in Ethiopia were raised by the private sector. However, one of criticisms regarding the strength of the private sector arguments is lack of researched paperwork and documents to be presented as evidence. And most agreements fail to weigh more than a hear-say or antidotal instances. In this regard, how is it going to be different this time?

Talking about the last PPCF, I could not say that the problems raised by the private sector were not researched. But, there were some issues in presentation and phrasing of the concerns.  We could have had better prepared business community members presenting the issues to the forum. So, for the next forum, the speakers representing the private sector have to be those who can give better information; people cannot just raise their hands and speak. The private sector should function as a team in the PPCF. Some might have better knowledge and information about some of the issues, while others might specialize in other areas. Such was not possible in the first PPCF and the way the dialogue was conducted is not going to be the same now. But, if you ask me whether the problems tabled at the forum were indeed researched, the answer will be yes they were. Let us not forget that there were the Private Sector Development Hub (PSD Hub) producing research papers and booklets on the problems of the private sector. Yet again, as players in the industry, the private sector members have an exclusive access to the day-to-day difficulties of the sector. And some of the problems do not even require heavy research work to identify the issues as the sector players themselves are living proof.

Another distinct feature of the last PPCF was that it was more of a debate forum where both sides tried to hold their strong positions and many issues were left for further investigation. But the PPCF should be about consultations and getting results at the forums. Is it going to be different this time around?

In my opinion, debate and discourses are not necessarily a bad thing. If the debate translates into results, it is for the better. This being said, I would not dare say that the way the discussion was flowing at the first dialogue forum was flawless. Some of commentators did not even have solid understanding about the agenda and the issues transpired at the forum.

Are you saying that the secretariat will allocate the time share and select speakers?

No. we will not try to strictly regulate the discussions as such, but we have to single out individuals who should speak on and share their information, evidences or specific instances based on their experience. Some people might have good insight on the agenda topic and some might have that valuable information. In the remainder of the time until the forum, we trying to mature the agenda further and get in touch with those people.

Most of participants in the last PPCF were big business personalities in the country. But the small and medium businesses also have pertinent problems that they want bring to light. How are you going to address this this time?

Yes the concern is right in my opinion. The selectees should be from different sections of the business community. The list should be cross-sectional as much as possible.

But how do select participants?

In fact, we do have two groups of participants in the forums. So we need to communicate with unit MoT on the list and the size of participation. However, we are not at liberty to select all the participants even from the private sector side. The chambers are the ones drafting the list of participants and notifying us of the participants. Since we know the agenda and well might have a contribution I identifying the some of the partakers, but all in all the chambers are in the position to better select participant members.

At the conception of the PPCF, the chamber leader and government counterparts deliberated hard and long on the extent to which the output of the forum should be legally binding. Finally, the forum settled as an MOU between MoT and the chamber. Now, you are responsible to follow the pending agendas from last forum and since you cannot legally compel the government institution to act on the pending issues, how are you accomplishing the follow up task?

So far, we cannot say that we have faced problems in following up the pending agendas. Yet again, it is too soon to evaluate. However, customs valuation related matters, which were pending from the last meeting, is some area that we have received good cooperation from the authorities. On other hand, the excise taxations matters are also under review by the revenue authority and so far the cooperation is good. Some of the issues in which the forum has arrived at a general consensus are also progressing. We are setting up common committees to deal with the technical matters where it is needed. The excise tax issue in the bottled water sector is one such area requiring a detail look at the technical aspects.

Going back to the agenda selection, the trade registration and licensing proclamation is selected for the next federal forum. But with new and more burning matters like the urban land lease decree on the fore, is it wise to go with a relatively seasoned and much talked about topic?

Yes, the lease decree is indeed becoming a bone of contention for many segments of the society. But, the trade registration issues as well are equally pressing for the private sector and there are implementation problems that the sector is facing…

Yes, but the business community is already in the process of registering and tackling existing problems. On the other hand, the lease decree is new and did not enter into implementation yet. So, which one will have more impact for businessmen?

To begin with the lease decree is still fresh; in the sense that even the government is still consulting the public on the matter. And the private sector is not only one who has a stake on the matter; the general public is deliberating on the matter at the moment. The consultation is not exclusively with the private sector; it is among the general public. Now, to make the matter a topic of discussion at the forum all the consultation should be completed and the issues should mature. To have the lease decree as topic in more structured and formal PPCF, we have to first see the outcome of the current discussions. However, even if we wanted to take this topic to the forum, still we do not have enough time to make the adequate time to prepare and make an in-depth research on the matter. If the issues persist, we might consider it for the next agenda.

According to the schedule, the federal forum is to convene every six months during which time you will be busy filtering the agenda topic for the upcoming PPCF.  But, if experience teaches anything, during the period of six months, a lot of new regulations and policy changes could transpire. Since, you need time to study the topics, how can you cover the problems while they are still fresh and while they still matter most?

The MOU says at least every six months but do not restrict us from organizing the forum in shorter duration, if we have the issues and can study them and make them ready for discussions. For the time being, we are getting started and as we gain experience the speed at which we will be processing the agendas and the meetings will definitely improve. On the other hand, let’s not forget that there are sectorial forums dealing with many sector-specific matters in detail. Such forums would help us distil the issue that needs to be tabled at the federal stages.

Given the recent turns of events in the internal chamber politics and power struggle, how far do you expect the confidence of the business community to be in the chamber’s ability to make an organized presentation of the issues at PPCF?

We think of it as an opportunity to show the other side of the chamber. Whatever happened during the election is in the past and now we look ahead and do our business. In fact, the forum is also a good opportunity to build our image and show what we are about. Image is always the mixture of both positive and negative ones. So, we want to take the advantage and organize a forum where all-rounded private sector issues will be addressed.