The Ministry of Trade and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) held a consultative meeting on Ethiopia's National AGOA Response Strategy in mid July (July 16-17) at the UN Conference Center. The meeting was attended by relevant stakeholders from the private sector, the government and the donor community to provide input for the National AGOA Response Strategy.
Close to 200 participants, including leading exporters, heads of sectoral associations, heads of chambers of commerce, senior government officials from various ministries, commercial diplomats, members of civil society and donors participated. The meeting identified sector specific constraints in selected priority areas and identified appropriate support programs and policy interventions to overcome them. Speaking at the consultative forum, Ethiopia's State Minister of Trade, Yacob Yala, said he considered this response strategy an integral part of the country's Growth and Transformation Plan.
He said the underlying objective of the GTP strategy "is to increase the share and the benefits gained from the global economic integration with our ultimate goal of becoming a middle-income country by 2025, " adding that the US market opportunities opened up through AGOA were extremely useful to help realize this objective. He expressed the government's appreciation for the support provided by the ECA's Africa Trade Policy Centre over the years, as well as the support provided for the preparation of the National Strategy and the August 2013 AGOA Forum that Ethiopia is hosting. The National AGOA Response Strategy has been developed in cooperation with the African Trade Policy Center of the ECA, in order to identify key supply side constraints that impede the performance of the export sector and to suggest possible interventions to help overcome these constraints. According to the UNECA, Ethiopia is the first country to embark on the formulation of a strategy to increase its share in benefiting from the AGOA act.
Comments Post a comment