The Ministry of Industry (MoI) issued on April 24, 2015, a new directive that will enable it to address the problems faced by sectoral and professional associations in the manufacturing sector.
This directive will centralise the petition process which to date takes the associations to different authorities depending on the issue, without any specific direction to govern the process.
The directive issued is based on Article 20 sub-article one of Proclamation No. 691/2010, which defines the powers and duties of the executive organs of the federal government, and the Chamber of Commerce & Sectoral Associations Proclamation No. 341/1995. Article 20 sub- article one of Proclamation No. 691/2010 provides that with regard to industry and investment, powers and duties be given to the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoI).
The new directive is necessitated to go hand in hand with the development of the industry sector to respond to the issues that have been raised by the manufacturers, Girma Gelelcha, Sectoral Relations Competency & Export Incentive Directorate director at the MoI said.
Previously, the industries’ sectoral associations had been organised under one ministry, the then Ministry of Trade & Industry. However, with the diversification of the sectors in the industry, the issues raised by the sectoral associations are also diversified and they were seeking to be organised into different sectoral associations. However, they had no financial capacity to form independent sectoral associations as their members were limited, Girma said, adding that their capacity in now being improved due to the increase in the members of the associations.
The specific and various problems that have been raised by the different industrial sectoral associations have not been addressed specifically and were not supported in a specialised manner, Girma Damte, senior public relations expert at the Ministry of Industry’s Corporate Communications Directorate said, adding that the new directive was issued to accommodate the changes in the manufacturing sector.
The directive was issued recently, five years after the Proclamation because of the need to conduct studies on the issues that have been raised by the industries, Brook Yohanness, senior expert of the sectoral industry development relations and competency team said, adding that currently, there are around 25 sectoral associations in industry with others being in the process of registration after the new directive had been issued.
The scope of the directive is limited to the professional associations and sectoral associations in the manufacturing sector and their manner of organisation can be at Wereda level, regional level and national level. In addition to the establishment of the industrial sectoral associations, the directive has also provided an article for the renewal of the sectoral associations within two years and says that if the association does not come up with an audit report and annual performance report within three months of the end of a fiscal year, its licence will be revoked.
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