Chamber President Stresses Need for Private Investment in Agro-Processing, Tourism and E-commerce

A two-day national public-private dialogue on the need for the private sector to heavily invest in agro-processing, tourism and e-commerce kicked off in the Skylight Hotel today.

In his opening remark, Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations President Melaku Ezezew pointed out that “the agro-processing sector should be given attention by the private and public sector so as to reduce poverty and significantly contribute toward ensuring food security.”

Lack of raw material, issues related to packaging, market options, and inadequate service infrastructure are some of the challenges the sub-sector has been facing, he added.

The president stated that consultative meetings among the public and private sector will have significant role in addressing the prevailing challenges while indicating inputs to policy makers.

The demand for digital economy is growing, Melaku said, adding that the government needs to introduce enabling policy to make the private sector invest.

Trade and Regional Integration State Minister, Teshale Belihu said on his part the consultative discussion is useful to address the bottlenecks and bring the private sector on board.

Agro-processing, tourism, and e-commerce are among the major areas to foster regional integration, he stated, and underscored that the discussion will be solution oriented.

According to him, the number of e-commerce users is growing from time to time. “However, it is difficult to say that there is enough system compared to the sector’s growth.”

The National Public Private Dialogue is expected to deliberate on different thematic areas including digital transformation, tourism, and views of the private sector .

Source: Ethiopian News Agency