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ERCA to Expand in MerkatoThe Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) has made public its new expansion plan in Merkato. In order to generate more tax revenues from the biggest open air market in Africa, the Authority has planned to open two branch offi ces, ten tax collection centers and to deploy 1,000 newly recruited staff mem-bers in Merkato. Mean while the tax paying members of the business community in Addis had criticized ERCA for its poor customer service and information management, at a consultation meeting organized by the ERCA & AAC-CSA. The January 11, 2012 meeting was planned to discuss the draft project to widen tax coverage in Merkato; however, the participants used the platform to air their views about the Authority’s defects. The meeting was led by Deputy Director of ERCA Geberwahd Woldegiorgis. Mekonnen Ayele, Le-gal Advisor to the Director, made a power point presentation explaining ERCA’s expansion plan in Merkato. The new project will make the Authority broaden its tax coverage especially around Merkato. The project is expected to be enforced in the coming month, March. Establishing a well balanced com-petition is the primary intent of the project, said Ato Mekonnen. Once the project becomes real the busi-ness community will have a chance to get a service nearby their places. As a result it will let them save their time. Ato mekonnen is convinced that some of

Janauary 2012 ADDIS BUSINESS PAGE 2Janauary 2012 ADDIS BUSINESS PAGE 2

FEATUREEDITORIALEDITORIAL

Cont’d on page 4

Balanced Tax Balanced Tax System for System for

DevelopmentDevelopment

It is well known that the Ethiopian government

is working hard in recent years to increase its

tax revenue. Its labour has paid off- the govern-

ment’s income is increasing year after year. Yet, the govern-

ment still believes that the economy could generate more

and it is crafting new plans to gain more from the ever in-

creasing tax revenue. The new tax reform plan of Merkato

can be one such initative in this trend.

As the biggest open air market in Africa, Merkato, han-

dles more than 50% of the cash exchange in the country;

however, according to the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs

Authority, only 25% of the business in Merkato are fulfi lling

their tax duties. To tackle this problem, the authority has

drafted a reform plan to increase the tax payers’ percentage

to 75 registering an increment of 50%, by enehancing the Au-

thority’s collection capacity. It has planned to open two big

branch offi ces, ten tax collection centers and deploy more

than 1,000 newly recruited staff members of the Authority.

The burning question is when the plan is implemented,

what will its effect be on the market? The attempt made by

ERCA to include all businesses in the tax bracket is encour-

aging. For the ultimate aim is fair competition. However

the Authority has to take precautionary measures not to

scare off the business community and create resistance.

Misguided implementation could affect business transac-

tion and as a result the overall community negatively.

As the government works diligently to collect duties, it

has to make itself ready to serve the tax payers as well.

Mistreating tax payers, mistrust, can have bad psychologi-

cal effects on the business community. It will also create a

bad image for the tax system that the government is try-

ing to build. Ofcourse, the tax payer has to fulfi ll its legal

duties as well. Yet, the tax collector too has to remember

that every obligation comes with its attendant rights and

privileges.

The tax collection Authority has to serve tax Payers

professionally understanding that its existence is entire-

ly dependent on the taxpaying community. On the other

hand, the tax payer has to fulfi ll its duty willingly know-

ing that without its contribution the government and even

the country could not stand still. Balanced apporach is the

name of the game.

CARBON- the future CARBON- the future OIL?OIL?

In the last few years, the world is seeing the emergence of what many fi nancial institu-tions are considering to be the fastest growing market in the world: The Carbon Trad-ing Market. The market has been driven primarily by European companies and inves-tors where it has grown from just under $10 Billion in 2005 to over $140 Billion in 2010. Many people argue, if it wasn’t for the fi nancial crisis in the West, particularly in Europe, where the Carbon trade is strongest, the market would have grown to a much larger scale.

While this growth has been dramatic, the market is still projected to rise even more dramatically with several large fi nancial institutions such as Barclay’s Capital projecting the market to eventually reach $3 Trillion by 2020. Barclay’s and other leading institutions such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs attribute these projections to be driven primarily by US demand as the nation looks to soon enact a similar Carbon Trading Market as Europe. Further growth will be driven by other emerging markets such as China and India who are also slated to join this emerging market in a big way within the next 1-3 years

The Birth of the Carbon Markets

“Warming of the climate system is unequivo-cal, as is now evident from the observations in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising average sea level.”With these words, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made certain that the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which are widely believed to have contributed to global warming would be a policy issue for decades.

In response to this dilemma, several of the world’s leading industrialized nations met in Kyoto Japan in 1997 to discuss solutions to this gripping prob-lem. The meeting resulted in the ratifi cation of the Kyoto Protocol Treaty. Under this international treaty, the vast majority of developed nations agreed to legally binding targets for their emissions of the six major GHG gases. Emissions and quotas were agreed by each participating country, with the intention of reducing the overall emissions by 5.2% from the 1990 levels by the end of 2012. The treaty was adopted in Kyoto, Japan in December of 1997 and was entered into force in February of 2005.

In order to help countries subject to the treaty reach their specifi c GHG reduction goals, the Kyoto Protocol implemented what were known as “fl exible mechanisms”. The most popular of these Kyoto mechanisms has been Emis-sions Trading, otherwise known as the “Car-bon Market.” This mechanism helps to stimu-late green investment and help countries meet their emission targets in a cost effective way.

Europe was the world’s fi rst region to warmly embrace the idea of Carbon Trading. This region currently has the world’s largest Carbon Mar-ket, trading upwards of US $140 billion worth of carbon-related trades in 2009, with more than 3 billion carbon spot, future, and options con-tracts. The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) was the fi rst multinational and multi-sector compliance based emissions trading system in the world. It has been in opera-tions since 2005 and is now in its second trad-ing period, which ends in 2012 and is poised to be renewed for a third trading period soon.Under the EU ETS, each member state of the Euro-pean Union receives an annual emission allocation (CAP). These allocations are then divided among its worse emissions-producing companies. Those companies are then legally obligated to not exceed the emissions that they are allowed. When a com-pany goes under its allotted target, it can then sell (TRADE) its excess allowance as a “carbon credit” to other companies that have exceeded their caps.

On the other hand, if a company exceeds its target, it will subsequently have to pay a large penalty and/or then have to purchase carbon credits on the Carbon Markets to make up the difference.

Global Carbon Market Trading ActivityCompared to the European Carbon Markets, the rest of the world’s Carbon Markets pale in comparison. However, most industrialized na-tions are rapidly joining the market as they not only see the environmental benefi ts but also the economic benefi ts that such as market can provide as money gets funneled into job creating alterna-tive energy development. Below is a brief listing of the major recent carbon related acquisitions.Recent Activity/Acquisitions

• General Electric (GE) invested over $400 million to launch the world’s largest Carbon capture project (October 2009)

• JP Morgan Chase purchased leading UK Car-bon Company, EcoSecurities for $200 million (November 2009)

• Famed Investor, Warren Buffet purchased leading US rail company, Burlington North-ern Santa Fe for $44Billion with intentions of capitalising on potential billions of dollars worth of carbon credits that the rail company could generate (November 2009)

• Leading electronic Futures and Commodities Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) purchased London based, Climate Exchange, PLC (owners of the EU Climate Exchange, CCX, and Beijing Climate Exchange) for $600 million (April 2010)

• Barclay’s Bank purchased leading Swedish Carbon Credit Developer, Tricorona for $145 million (June 2010)

• Bloomberg, LP acquired UK data provider New Energy Finance for an undisclosed amount in order to offer products useful to investors in the global carbon markets

(December 2009)• Thomson Reuters acquired Norwegian based

provider of Carbon Market news and content, Point Carbon for an undisclosed amount (June 2010)

• World’s largest Internet Company, Google announced its intention of becoming carbon neutral and purchased an undisclosed amount (rumored to be in the tens of millions) of US Carbon Credits from a landfi ll methane facil-ity in South Carolina (June 2010)

Comparison to oil marketThere is a strong case to be made that the nascent Carbon Market can be compared to the Oil Market in the mid 1970s. In the mid 1970s, the price of oil lay dormant at approximately $8 per barrel for several years. However, the formation ofOPEC resulted in price controls that the market had never experienced. These price controls resulted in a rapid spike in the price. Investors who held oil as a commodity prior to the OPEC formation made up to 500% returns in a very short period of time.

We see a similar situation playing out in the Carbon Market; however the price in-crease is widely expected to be even

Begna Simesso

(Cont’d from page 1

Janauary 2012 ADDIS BUSINESS PAGE 3Janauary 2012 ADDIS BUSINESS PAGE 3

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Chamber Commented on the Lease Draft Directives

Ministry of Urban Development and Construc-tion discussed with representatives of business community both from the Ethiopian Cham-ber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (ECCSA) and the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (AACCSA) on the draft directives of the new land lease proclamation. During the meeting held at city hall on 26 January, 2011 the min-istry accepted 96.4 percent of the written com-ments forwarded by the business community included in the draft document.

The ministry calls for this meeting in collabo-ration with the national and city chamber fol-lowing criticisms on the government to open the fl oor for discussion on the new land lease proc-lamation. Opening the meeting, President of ECCSA, Mulu Solomon, said the government effort to include the business community and the public at large to forward their comments as they have been done in the draft directives should be practiced in the future endeavor. “Af-ter the business community thoroughly gone through the draft directives of the proclamation, we produced different points in written com-ments on the improvement of the directives,” said the president.

State Minister of the Ministry of Trade Kebe-de Chane in his speech said, in the Ethiopian context land belongs to the government and the peoples of the country .AS a result nations, nationalities and peoples of the country enjoy equal right of administering and using the land.

Participant Tsega Asmare forwarded that the lease price of the land houses have been sky-rocketing from time to time and hence to bal-ance this unfair competition and to support those citizens at the lower and medium class to construct their own houses land holdings below 500 sq. meters should be excluded from the lease system.

Replying to questions raised by the participants minister at the Ministry of Urban Development

and Construction, Mekuria Haile appreciated the chambers efforts to go through the draft directives and the ministry found their request to include the draft of a new law that guarantee the land holding of the individual and the busi-ness persons as their owned property construc-tive and hence it will be included in the draft document.

With regard to the renewal of the lease period, the government will renew the contract unless the land is needed for huge infrastructure work and the property owner reports to the offi ce with the set time, said the minister.

The meeting winded up after reaching to con-sensus to call for further discussion with stake-holders for the draft lease directives and its op-

Authority is trying to overcome the weak-ness by providing special ethical education, which focuses on minimizing the habit of negotiating with illegal business persons.

But the Business community there at Merkato is showing distress about the up-coming project. An Anonymous merchant said that didn’t get help or see a signifi cant change from the previous staffs that were assigned by the Authority. And he doesn’t believe that the Merkato business com-munity will trust the newly assigned tax collectors for they already lost their confi -

dence from what they experienced in the past.Some of the business persons also have a doubt whether the Authority would be able to control those illegal brokers and trad-ers by assigning a large number of staffs.

According to the study those who are pay-ing the expected amount of tax are not more than 25 percent. The rest are play-ing with the business without issuing re-ceipts. Once the project becomes online it is planned to reach the percent to 75.

Fikadu Abiye

Janauary 2012 ADDIS BUSINESS PAGE 4Janauary 2012 ADDIS BUSINESS PAGE 4

Book ReviewBook Review Title: The Impact of Tax Reform on Private Sector Development

CARBON -theCARBON -the ... (Cont’d from page 2)

Producer: Th e Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce & Sectoral Associations (PSD Hub)The Private Sector Development Hub under the umbrella of the Addis Ababa Chamber of Com-merce and Sectoral Associations published a study (an 82 pager) entitled “The Impact of tax reform on Private Sector Development” in October 2010. Independent consultants Amin Abdella and John Clifford conducted the Study. The primary purpose of taxation is to mobilize the revenue required to fi nance public goods and services. Since tax have a persuasive infl u-ence on economic decisions of individuals and businesses, and on social equity, the tax system should achieve the appropriate level of revenue as effi ciently and fairly as possible. Tax laws change with political regimes and was made compat-ible with the system. Under the current regime, a number of tax reforms have been made to con-form to the liberalization process of the country. Since 1991, many tax reforms have been taken and the core elements of the tax reforms were tax and tariff reductions, overhauling the tax system, improving the tax administration and the modern-ization of the tax structure. As an element of the reform, in January 2003, Value added tax (VAT) was introduced to replace the existing sales tax.

The following major complaints have risen by businesses recently and examining these concerns regarding the impacts of the reform on business development, with the intention of making recom-mendation that inform tax policy decision makers is the intent of this study.• The Market distortion created by VAT, placing VAT registered businesses at a price

disadvantage against the non-registered one.• High cost to businesses of compliance with tax

laws• Tax burdens falls disproportionally on a relatively few large, formal enterprises.• The approach to assessment and enforcement

in all types of taxes.The study reviewed the evolution of the tax reform and the current tax laws one by one. It also assessed the weakness of the tax laws in force and highlighted discrepancies between tax laws, regu-lations and implementation directives. In addi-tion the literature review part of the study briefl y

explained the principles of taxation and tax reforms, tax reform models along with country experiences and different lessons from tax reforms.Tax revenue, which constitutes more than 79% of domestic revenue, grew on average, by 23.9% in the period 2003/2004-2007/08 to reach birr 23.8 billion in 2007/08 and in 2010/11 it scored a record high collection close to 51 billion birr.

Although revenue performance seems promis-ing in absolute terms, it has not signifi cantly in-creased as a share of GDP. Tax revenue fell from 9.9 % of GDP in 2003/04 to 7% in 2006/07 but improved in 2007/08 to reach 10.3% and the average tax revenue/GDP ratio for Ethiopia is 11 percent. This shows that the government perfor-mance has not been growing in tandem with the growth of the economy. This is mainly because, in spite of agriculture’s contribution of more than 45% of GDP, it generates disproportion-ately lower percentage contribution to total tax revenue for the government. In this section, the study also discovered the recent macro economic and government revenue performances in detail.

The study is based on the fi ndings of two surveys : the primary survey was undertaken on 300 businesses, tax professionals and tax administrators in Addis Ababa and the second was carried out in the six cities of Ethiopia: Addis Ababa, Adama, Bahir Dar, Hawassa and Mekelle, and covered some 700 businesses in total. The survey respondents were asked ques-tions about a number of different aspects of the tax system and tax reform, ranging from the perceived simplicity and transparency of the tax system to specifi c issues such as enforcement and compli-ance. The data from respondents are also well compiled analyzed and presented in the book..

The respondents from the business community believe that the tax reform has had a detrimental effect on private sector development in a number of ways and the main concerns are concluded in the paper along with fruitful recommendations as well. For further reading, you can access the book from AACCSA’s documentation center.

greater than that of oil in the 1970s. The reason-ing for such a big price increase revolves around simple supply and demand.As more international governments start to regu-late their country’s emissions, and as more com-panies start to limit theiremissions (either voluntarily or due to regulatory purposes), the demand for available carbon cred-its are poised to risedramatically. Therefore, the price of Carbon could potentially experience exponential returns similar to those experienced by oil when price controls by OPEC were introduced. In the case of US car-bon credits, these types of exponential returns can occur quite rapidly as the nation moves closer to establishing a Federal Carbon Market.

Carbon Prices and ProjectionsTh e benchmark European Carbon Credits on the European Climate Exchange (ECX) be-gan trading at approximately 5 Euros in 2005.Within a couple of short years, they experienced a rapid rise to over 30 Euros providing its fi rst in-vestors with very nice returns (500%) in a short period of time. Th e owners of both the ECX, Cli-mate Exchange PLC (Symbol CLE) began trading on the London Stock Exchange (AIM) in early

2005. Th e price of those shares experienced an even greater rise and made early investors for-tunes as its price rose from 100 to over 2000 ( 2000%) from 2005 to mid 2007.Th e Climate Exchange was recently purchased for $600 million (a 50% premium) in April 2010 by leading Futures and Commodities Exchange, Th e Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).

Th e benchmark European Carbon prices cur-rently trade around $20/ton. Future price pro-jections for Carbon vary greatly with projections anywhere from $30‐$300/ton. Most economists and scientists believe the price needs to trade somewhere between $75‐ $80/ton in order to achieve emissions targets. In November of 2010, the Independent Energy Association announced that Carbon prices were way too low and needed to rise to $175/ton in order to reach long term emissions targets.

Based on these projections and the strong global push for Carbon Pricing and alternative energy development, it is our strong belief that those who missed the remarkable Carbon Market growth in Europe a few years ago will be pro-vided with another and quite possibly more lucrative opportunity to capitalize on the Carbon Market’s tremendous profi t potential, particu-larly before the US aggressively enters the market.

Abay Insurance S.Co. has advertised its business on “Addis Business Directory 2011-2012’’ which is published by Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations every two years. The information should have been categorized under ‘Insurance Services’; however, it was mistakenly placed under ‘Insurance Brokerage’. We apologize for the unintentional mistake.

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CORRECTION

Janauary 2012 ADDIS BUSINESS PAGE 5Janauary 2012 ADDIS BUSINESS PAGE 5

INTERVIEW

IP is litt le used in EthiopiaAto Getachew Mengiste is an Intellectual Property (IP) Consultant and Attorney. He studied Law at Addis Ababa University .In 1986 GC. after graduation he joined the Ethio-

pian Science and the Technology Commission and worked there for a couple of years and he was sent to the United Kingdom to study Intellectual Property Law. There he did

his postgraduate au the University of London in 1990, and then he came back home. His primary assignment was developing an intellectual property system from the scratch.

He then drafted and successfully defended Patent Law for Ethiopia. He was also involved in the development of Copy Right and Trade Mark Law. Ato Getachew was respon-

sible for the establishment of Intellectual Property Offi ce in Ethiopia in 2003. Next he was appointed as the fi rst Director General of Intellectual Property Offi ce, and served

until 2008. He is now engaged in consultancy service in Ethiopia and many other African countries Ato Getachew is trying to make intellectual property the main tool for the

development of the country, Ethiopia. Our staff reporter Hiwot Beka interviewed him on his professional career and produces the following piece.

Q. How can we make intellectual property work for business?

Getachew: Intellectual property has a great role for a given business activity and for the econom-ic development of a country as a whole. If you look at the difference between the developed and the developing country, it mainly lies on the technological development. Those with ad-vanced technology are developed and those with backward technology are less developed. The result is the inventive potential of people. Peo-ple will be motivated to invent or to come with new invention, if they are assured of getting the desired reward from it. Because invention takes you so many things like cost, labor and time. One should be entitled a return on investment as well as a reward. Inventive activities also need investment to further develop and make it commercially available. This all becomes pos-sible as a result of effective intellectual property protection.

Another contribution intellectual property to business is that it would build confi dence on the parts of the technology owner. There is no country in the world which is technologically in-dependent. So foreign technology owners would have the confi dence to part with their technol-ogy if they are certain that their technology will be protected and get a royalty by licensing their technology. One would say the existence of an intellectual property system builds a confi dence would facilitate the transfer of technology. This in return contributes to the economy as well.

Q. Let us talk about intellectual property and the digital economy. Digital economies mainly base itself on intel-lectual property. We may think of the various technologies that use the ICT infrastructure and different software. These technologies are either patented or protected as a trade se-cret. The transaction that takes place through E-Commerce involves protected digital con-tents. If you take music for example is pro-tected by copyright. There is a very strong relationship between the two. Digital economy has its own positive and negative impacts.

Digital economy is now becoming a challenge for Intellectual property because its protection is not up to date for the new needs and situa-tions created as a result of the development of

digital technology. It is now possible to reproduce a perfect copy with a negligible cost and within a frac-tion of seconds. Now many countries are now forced to revise the existing patent and copyright law and enacted a new law that deal with data protection.

Q. Let us make it a bit specifi c and talk about the use of Intellectual property to the SMEs.

Getachew: I believe that every human being has his/her own ability to come up with new invention, wheth-er they are black or white, or rich or poor. So the small and medium enterprises of Ethiopia have intellectual

property assets that could be protected using dif-ferent intellectual property tools like any SMEs in Europe or the States. I may give you one exam-ple, just look at the potable water that are packed and distributed in Ethiopia. I think we have about 8. I have learnt that some of those bottles with their own brands are not protected. Brands are intellectual property assets. A brand has its own value. It helps the producer distinguish its prod-uct from others. You may have a preference of certain bottled potable water that is possible as a result of brand. Even a customer who has a pref-

erence to a certain product would be in a position to have a product of his choice using brand. Let us talk about SMEs, it is similar. There are busi-ness persons, involved in the handicraft or even manufacturing sector. Whatever technique he/she may use in producing that product can further be improved. This is possible by making use of the technological information contained in the patent document. There are more than 30 million patent documents in Ethiopia. SMEs which also wants to improve their production or wants to come up with a new production line could make use of the documents. SMEs could also benefi t from intel-lectual property system by protecting whatever assets they may come up with. But in a country like Ethiopia people wants to copy the design or whatever assets of a given product instead of de-veloping and improving a given product. As we can see the existence of intellectual prop-erty protection system is little used by SMEs. This is a result of lack of awareness about the use of intellectual property protection. The creation of awareness cannot be done by a single entity. It should be done by several stakeholders. Relevant government bodies and different association of the private sectors like AACCSA, the various associations of different business sectors, the business community itself and the media is re-sponsible in raising the awareness of the public.

With the protec-tion system of an intellectual prop-erty, it is not possi-ble to copy the work of others. These as a result force peo-ple to have a crea-tive mind and come with a better and improved product.

Q. What do you say about the exiting trend of Intellectual property protection system of Ethiopia?

Getachew: In Ethiopia the intellectual property system is a recent phenomenon. After the enact-ment of the intellectual property we see people taking their works to be protected. Even if it is

(Cont’d on page 9)

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After a common understanding between the business community and the Ministry of Urban Development and Construc-tion, few weeks ago discussions were held on the controversial lease procla-mation and the draft lease regulations.

As usual, the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associa-tions (AACCSA) organized a taskforce to review the legislations in detail and forward its comments refl ecting the position of the business community. Accordingly, following a series of meet-ings, the task force made thorough and objective examination to fi nd out the benefi ts and pitfalls of the legislations. Urban land has become under govern-ment ownership since 1975. Therefore it was observed that one can only talk on the system of land administration adopted by government. Following the collapse of the military regime the idea of lease as a system of urban land administra-tion has been adopted by the incumbent. From the outset the introduction of lease was very much controversial among the business community. Gradually, however lease begun to be easily adoptable and the business community seemed to accept it.

The adoption of the new urban land lease proclamation was said to have been prompted by raising concern of corrup-tion on urban land administration which has been subjected to “individual and governmental thievery”. The major rea-sons as has been repeatedly explained by the Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was to control corrupt practices and en-sure the legitimate right of the govern-ment among others. Due to the narrow scope of the raison deter for the prom-ulgation of the proclamation, some of the provisions of the proclamation have introduced provisions that have radi-cal implication on old possessions that could potentially dilute the location value of houses built on urban land. As a re-sult, the proclamation triggered much uproar among owners of residential and business building on old possession. The proclamation recognizes the right to transfer through the limited situation of inheritance a house built on old posses-sion and provide exception for the appli-cation lease. However in all other kinds of property transfer, the proclamation shall be immediately governed under the legal regime of lease. In fact, even without the transfer of urban houses in the expressly authorized inheritance, the application of the proclamation in its entirety has be-come automatic where the owner of an urban house on an old land possession is allowed to acquire a plot of land adjacent to his old possession. Regardless of the size of the plot of land acquired, urban house owner on old possession cease to enjoy whatever right he had on an urban land under old possession.

The proclamation is extremely narrow on the exception provided to maintain the right of persons who have built on old possession. This provision therefore raised very serious concern among the business com-munity engaged in the banking and other fi nancial services. The proclamation does not take in to account the fact that the banking sector in particular accept urban houses as collateral and give high value to location. This concern was raised by from representatives of the banking sector in a meeting held by AACCSA to solicit the opinion of the business community.Indeed, the fact that Banks have been providing loan facilities to their custom-ers taking in to consideration the location value urban houses and other buildings as collateral that has not been accom-modated in the new lease proclamation will defi nitely put all banks in great dif-fi culty. Banks will lose much of the mon-ey compared to the amount of loan they have lent to their borrower by diminish-ing the value of the collateral they taken. This problem seemed to be lately recog-nized by the Ministry of Urban Devel-opment and Construction and attempts were made to rectify the mistake in the newly drafted lease regulations. While the measure taken by the government to identify the problem that is likely to cre-ate serious negative implication to the banking industry and seek solutions to avert it must be appreciated, the proposed measure suffers serious legal problems.

First of all, the proclamation provides a very restrictive exception for the applica-tion of lease on houses built on old pos-session. This exception does not include the transfer of defaulting borrower house taken as collaterals. The application of the proclamation is envisaged in such situa-tions which will deprive banks to get “the location value” as substantial amount of the sale will have to be surrendered to mu-nicipal authorities upon transfer.

On the other hand, a regulation is meant to provide implementation rules consistent with the parent legislation; in this case the new lease proclamation. The draft lease regulation has come up with a provision that provide exception for the non applica-tion of the lease proclamation during the transfer of on houses built on old posses-sion and taken as collaterals for bank loan. The foregoing issues were brought to the attention of authorities who confi rmed that nearly 96% of the comments submit-ted by the business community were ac-cepted. The discussion held with the busi-ness community was certainly lively and productive. This discussion has clearly demonstrated the advantage of involving stakeholders on the preparation of bills.

Draft legislations could be prepared by experts or public offi cials. However, un-less these draft laws are debated and com-ments solicited, the law will suffer to be incomplete and unrealistic.

Legislation not debated may be defective!

Janauary 2012 ADDIS BUSINESS PAGE 7Janauary 2012 ADDIS BUSINESS PAGE 7

Janauary 2012 ADDIS BUSINESS PAGE 8Janauary 2012 ADDIS BUSINESS PAGE 8

Ajanta Pharma LimitedCountry: IndiaTel: +91 -22-28683210/ 28683945/ 28683625/ 28683718/ 66061000Fax: +91 -22-66061200/ 1300Email: prabhakars@ajantapharma.comWeb: WWW. ajantapharma.com Line of Business: Manufacturers & Marketing of Pharmaceutical Products.

CEAT Kelani International Tyres LTDCountry: Sri Lanka Contact Person: Mr.Ranil Abeyekara- Export ManagerTel: +94-11-2911-305, +94-11-4822-800 Ext 202Mobile: + 94-714-523-621Fax: +94-11-4817-721Email: ranilab@ceatsrilanka.com Line of Business: Radial constructions tyers for trucks, light Trucks, passenger Cars, agricultural equipments and others

HEINZ GRUBER e. K.

Country: German, Bremen

Tel: + 0049 421 79259 20/32/33

Fax: + 0049 421 79259 39

Email: jasmin.marx@heinzgruber.de

Line of Business: Honey and Beeswax.

Pakcot International Country: Karachi-Pakistan Mobile: + 92 333 22 77 808Tel: + 91 -422-2642484Email: pakcotint@gmail.com, packcotint@cyber.net.pkLine of Business: Raw Cotton.

Sampo Hydraulics LTD Country: Finland Tel: +358-20-755-0755Mobile: +358-50-500-1013Fax: +358-20-755-0710Email: info@blackbruin.com,pietu.lehtikuusi@blackbruin.com Web: www.blackbruin.com Line of Business: Agricultural, Forestry, Road construction, Mining Machineries

Line of Business: Honey and Beeswax.UK Trade and InvestmentCountry: United KingdomContact Person: Mehmet KiralTel: + 079-30-148-602Email: mehmetkiral66@hotmail.com

Misr Petroleum CompanyCountry: Egypt Tel: + 20-104-949248, 20-101-753285, 20-108-556124Fax: + 20-225-786806Email: export@misrpetroleum.com.egWeb: WWW.misrpetroleum.com.eg Line of Business: lubricants for automotive and Industrial Purposes, Petroleum Oils, Greases

Alexandria Paraffi n WaxCountry: EgyptTel: +00203-5859227Fax: +00203-5859228Email: alexparaffi nwax@gmail.comWeb: www.alexandriaparaffi nwax.com Line of Business: Paraffi n

Line of Business: Coffee Beans (Powder).UK Trade and InvestmentCountry: United Kingdom Contact Person: Mehmet KiralTel: + 079-30-148-602Email: mehmetkiral66@hotmail.com Line of Business: Beef, Lamb and Camel Meat.

Aquasub Engineering Country: IndiaTel: + 91 -422-2642484Fax: + 91 -422-2642128 Email: atxcbe@eth.net Web: www.aquagroup.in Line of Business: Manufacturer & Exporter Of Fully Stainless Steel Submersible Pumps, Cast Iron Submersible Pumps, Submersible Motors, Parts Of Centrifugal Pumps, Monoblocks, Jet Pumps, Electric Motors, Etc.

Farmi Forest Corporation Country: FinlandTel: +358-178-3241, +358-178-324-240Fax: +358-178-324372Email: info@farmiforest.fi Web: www.farmiforest.fi Line of Business: Forest Machine

UK Trade and InvestmentCountry: United Kingdom Contact Person: Mehmet KiralTel: + 079-30-148-602Email: mehmetkiral66@hotmail.com Line of Business: Beef, Lamb and Camel Meat

Company from IranContact Person: Habibollah H.N.TEHRANI Tel: +98 21 6642 9090Mobile: +98 912 119 6989Fax: +98 21 6642 7346Email: hhn.tehrani@yahoo.com Line of Business: Bitumen

Sofi pack CompanyCountry: EgyptTel: +202-241-423-84Mobile: + 201-081-715-00Fax: +202-241-423-39Email: sofi pack@gmail.com Line of Business: Flexible Plastic Packaging Materials

Graphic Systems (Pvt.) Ltd.Contact Person: Mr. Keerthi GunawardaneCountry: Sri LankaTel: + 94 11 7396100-3 Fax: + 94 11 2867280Email: info@graphicsrilanka.comWeb: www.graphicsrilanka.com, www.niceday.lkLine of Business: Printing Manufacturing, Private Labels

Varna ProductsCountry: USATel: +530-676-7770Fax: +530-676-7796Email: tmcachran@varnaproducts.comWeb: www.varnaproducts.com Line of Business: Industrial Oil or Fuel Pumps

Vepi Comapny

Country: Finland

Tel: +358-20-7908-611, +358-20-790-8612

Email: ari.haapanen@petsmoproducts.fi

Web: www.petsmoproducts.fi

Line of Business: Sheet metal work and ma-

chinery, kitchen machines and truck tanks and processing equipment

Wood World Trade Fair will be held from April 18-

21, 2012 in Egypt. For more information:-

Tel: + 202-202-3304-6049

Email: info@stonegateegypt.com

Web: www.tradeshowz.net

የንግድ ዕድሎችForeign Companies Seeking Foreign Companies Seeking

ImporterImporterForeign Companies Looking Foreign Companies Looking

ExportersExporters

Trade FairsTrade Fairs

JOINT VENTURE OPPORTUNITY

Solid Gold Hardware Corp. Country: Taiwan Tel: 886-2-27567287Fax: 886-2-27565406 Email: asgh@ms21.hinet.net , louisa.liu@solidgold.com.tw Web: www.taiwantrade.com.tw Line of Business: Building Hardware, Bathroom Fitting Fasten-ers, Hand Tools, Tie Wire, Rubber Chair Tips and others

Hicham Hadad and Amer Irshaid and Partners Country: EgyptTel: +00962-6-43-91-444Mobile: +00962-7-77-423-600Fax: +00962-6-43-91-333Email: thymeorganic@hotmail.com

East Africa Com 2012 Trade Fair will be held from April 17-18,

2012 in Kenya. For more information:-

Tel: + 4420-7017-5506(UK)

Email: itmevents@informa.com

Web: www.eaafrica.com

The Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce & Sectoral Associations is about to launch a new DISPLAY STAND PROMOTION SERVICE to the business community. This new service helps to promote and increase your company’s’ visibility by enabling you to display your sample products and services on our new and modern Display Stand Located at our busy offi ce in Mexico Square in front of the Chamber’s meeting hall. Your business will be regularly visited by business people coming to Addis from all over the world and guests of the Chamber who are invited during various events.

Sample Products Business Cards

January 2012 ADDIS BUSINESS PAGE 9January 2012 ADDIS BUSINESS PAGE 9

Promote your Business on the AACCSA Display StandPromote your Business on the AACCSA Display Stand

For further information, please call, fax or e-mail at:Tel: 011-551-9817/551-8055ext 202/224

Fax: 011-551-1479E-mail: addischamber@gmail.com

The service will be given at a reasonable price. Limited space Avail-able, seize the opportunity.

Brochures Pictures Pamphlets

IP is litt le... (Cont’d from page 5)

not at satisfactory level we begun to see light. There is a big improvement in the fi lm industry. Industrial designing as compared to those previ-ous days. People are developing new designs to add value to their products. We also noted few Ethiopians coming up with new technological invention. But it is still little used. Ethiopia as a country has a number of intellec-tual assets that should be protected using intel-lectual property tools. Other countries use dif-ferent intellectual property protection tools to protect intellectual assets of an individual or a given community or nation. For example in Italy, there is a certain region which produces cheese, and they brand the cheese using the geographical name and they tell you stories about the special type of grass that the cattle eat there.

We have similar experience. For example we have two types of sesame producing regions. There is Humera and Welega Sesame. One of these is better than the others, so what makes it better, the reason could be the feature of A, B, C, we can market, brand and protect the name in a way that let one fetch a better price. By the way there is a very good experience in coffee. The Ethiopian Coffee Associations are success-ful in managing brands for some of the fi ne cof-fees and protect those using trademarks outside of the country.

This experience should be replicated for other commercial agricultural products that the coun-

try has. If we take the Ethiopian traditional dresses, it is unique to Ethiopia. I know a case where this dress was marketed by an international European designer and he sells the dresses with a very high price. What is disgusting here is that he even didn’t recognize the contribution of Ethiopians. Here we lost not only money but also recognition and our assets. It seems easy but it is a big deal. We are los-ing foreign currency; we are letting others benefi t-ed from our own assets. We need to wake up and do what we are expected to do and maximize our ben-efi t from whatever intellectual assets that we have.

The other recommendation that I have is we have to incorporate the issue of intellectual property, entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity in our educational system. It is easy really a pity that if you ask me lists of innovators or great researchers. I can defi nitely mention so many foreign scientists but I can hardly do the same thing when you come to Ethiopians. We have so many Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein because we see some of the works of the earlier generation. We can take Axum or Lalibela, but I don’t really know who construct those precious sites except the myths. I can men-tion war heroes like Allula, Tewodros and many more. How about heroes in the fi eld of technol-ogy? So the awareness creation the importance of innovation should begin from the primary level. And plus we have to let our children our students know that, taking the work of other is a crime and a plagiarism. This kind of mentality kills the creativity and drive students to depend on others.

NOTICE to ALL AACCSA MEMBERSThe Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (AACCSA) provides business advocacy on legislation and regulatory issues affecting local businesses within Addis Ababa. We address issues which affect the business community at large, such as tax, fi nance and banking, customs, procurement, etc and all issues that in one way or an-other affect the doing business environment.

Now, with a view to deliver prompt and demand driven services to its mem-bers, AACCSA has put in place a simple mechanism whereby its members can log on to the Chamber’s website (http://www.addischamber.com) and share their business concerns to the POLICY ADVOCACY Department.

AACCSA has therefore defi ned a process that is conducive and simple for its members to air their business problems and concerns with a view to sub-mit them for consideration by its Board of Directors for a possible action. Simple Steps to Follow:Members who have a business issue or concern can do one of the following:i) Please go to Members Only and log in and scroll to Business Advocacy Form/Questionnaire and insert your concerns or

ii) Contact 251-11-5 154925 Ato Towfi q Mohammed The process entails the following:1. AACCSA member submits an issue for consideration, 2. Chamber staff reviews the issue, 3. If issue is believed to affect many members, AACCSA policy advocacy department emails entire chamber membership to request comments or feedback concerning the issue,4. Board considers issue and votes to agree or disagree with issue and formulates a position paper based on the action.5. AACCSA policy advocacy department communicates position adopted by the Board of Directors back to its members.

NB: Members are encouraged to remember that AACCSA is a non-govern-mental, non-political and non-profi t organization which is established by law to act on behalf of its members.