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Focus on the President’s speech
Bereket Gebru
The House of People’s Representatives and the House of Federation officially kicked off their duties on October 8, 2017 with a joint session addressed by President Mulatu Teshome. The President touched upon many issues looking back on the performance of sectors in the previous fiscal year and indicating the areas of focus in these sectors this year.
The President reported that the economy grew by 10.9%. Considering the planned rate of growth was 11.1%, the growth achieved last year was a success and an indication that the economy has bounced back from the doldrums of the El Nino induced drought and the unrests in some parts of the country that took place a year ago. The agricultural sector grew at a rate of 6.7% during the previous fiscal year registering lower rates than the planned 8% growth. The industrial sector grew by 18.7% with large and medium manufacturing industries growing by 23.2% while the construction industry grew by 21%. The service sector also grew by 10.3%.
Accordingly, the share of the agricultural sector to the whole economy has gone down steadily to reach 36.3%, while that of the industry reached 25.6% and the rest 39.3% is attributed to the service sector. A booklet entitled “4th Ethiopia Economic Update: Overcoming constraints in the Manufacturing Sector” by the World Bank Group stated that in 2013/14 the three sector shares in GDP were: 40.2 percent (agriculture), 45.5 percent (services), and 14.3 percent (industry). The figures thus indicate that the share of the industrial sector has increased considerably over the three years while that of the agricultural and service sectors has shrunk. From the figures above, we can say that the goals of industrialization are progressing well.
Another issue the President addressed was bridging the infrastructural gap. He pointed out that roads connecting 75% of rural kebeles among themselves and with main roads were built in 2016/17. Ensuring the accessibility of rural roads plays a major role in rural transformation. The sustained building and maintenance of the roads could hasten the transportation of agricultural products to the market while simultaneously speeding up the delivery of inputs and services to farmers and pastoralists. The goal for this year is to raise the level of accessibility of rural roads to 85% and have all the kebeles covered in the next two years.
As these roads built at the lowest level of local government (kebele) are the most basic of networks connecting the people, having all them connected with each other in just a couple of year’s time would change the lives of Ethiopians considerably. Access to education, health service, market, electricity, clean water and the rest of the things that make livelihood of citizens easy would soar with the introduction of these roads throughout the country. Therefore, 100% coverage of all kebeles with roads is one of the most basic ways to ensure that the development of the country hits the pockets of rural areas not reached before.
Another report by the President that is peculiar to this year is the shifting focus from the expansion of universities to that of ensuring quality of education. Raising the quality of education has been identified as the area of focus going forward with activities already underway towards that effect in general education, higher education and technical and vocational education and training. From this year onwards, we will put a break on university expansion and construction of buildings to shift the focus to spreading technical and vocational education and training to all woredas and equipping the laboratories, workshops and libraries of universities. As teachers hold a deterministic role in raising quality of education, due attention will be given to improving the lives, skills and work discipline of teachers along with improvements on the work environment. The research identified shortcomings in civic and ethics education will be addressed to raise its quality as the discipline plays a major role in raising responsible citizens.
Although the number of universities in the country is not enough to address the demand for tertiary education in the country yet, the country has achieved a lot over the past decade to ensure more accessibility. There are some scholars who argue that the focus on increasing the number and thus accessibility of these institutions has had its toll on quality of education in the country. Regardless of the reasons, the revamped level of investments in quality of education is expected to enhance the contribution of science to the economy.
Yet another of the issues the President addressed was the issue of achieving good governance and combating rent seeking and corruption. Tremendous efforts will be made in 2017/18 to build the executive capacity of the government, foster public participation and ownership and realize good governance. A movement of deep renewal was declared last year to realize these virtues and control the systemic threats of rent seeking and corruption. We have started to witness encouraging results from activities aimed at spreading community based discussions and creating a feeling of ownership of the campaign. Widening the scope and quality of these encouraging results will be our main goal in 2017/18.
Trainings were given that help political leaders and public servants achieve greater levels of responsibility, professionalism, integrity, dedication and loyalty in carrying out their jobs. The foundations of common understanding have already been laid. Efforts will be made to build their capacities on that foundation.
Areas with higher levels of rent seeking and corruption include: the tax system, government expenditure administration, purchasing, construction, contract administration, land development and supply, land administration and provision of construction license. This year will be one in which the reform activities in creating competition based trade system, anti-contraband trade activities, effective and efficient judicial system, police service and municipal service will be fully implemented. Most of these reforms are under preparation or delayed with a few already proving successful.
Ongoing efforts to hold corrupt government officials and their cronies to account will be strengthened this year. With the growing social frustration at the staggering and bold corrupt practices that have hampered the implementation of some of the mega projects the country has embarked on, mounting a big blow to the chain of government officials and their cronies plays a crucial role in ensuring the sustainability of the system. The shallow swings at the less powerful are not going to go down well with the people and their anger is going to erupt one of these days; therefore, the government needs to hold the presumed ‘untouchables’ to account before the country is engulfed with social rage and the forces waiting with excitement to use the situation to their advantage.
