Ethiopia Foreign Investment Related Procedures Streamlining

Country: Ethiopia

Locations within Country: Addis Ababa

Services: Business Process Inventory, Business Process Mapping, Business Process Reengineering, Design of One-Stop Shop (OSS)/Single Window

Context of the Assignment: 

The strategic context of this assignment is to help Ethiopia attract more foreign direct investments through the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC). The EIC is an autonomous government institution accountable to the country’s Investment Board, which is chaired by the Prime Minister. A Commissioner, who is also member of the Board, heads the EIC.

The government of Ethiopia’s concern regarding the scarcity of its foreign reserves is a valid economic concern that cannot be disregarded. The National Bank of Ethiopia’s foreign exchange directives are rightly aimed at maintaining the balance of payments and effectively using limited foreign currency to promote economic development, allowing necessary import goods to be secured. However, it must also be realized that foreign exchange controls should aim at eventually transitioning to a market economy. Eventually, Ethiopia should abandon direct foreign exchange controls. This assignment had worked toward that objective.

Description of the Assignment: 

Apex Consulting was engaged by the IFC to work directly with Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) on streamlining foreign investment related processes using process mapping and reengineering techniques. Apex provided specific reform recommendations to the concerned authorities on the basis of global best practices and previous experiences in similar economies. Those recommendations aimed at increasing the consistency and predictability of foreign investment-related procedures by narrowing the gap between investors’ and government’s experience in going through these procedures. Furthermore, Apex had developed an implementation plan for the recommended actions, including the establishment of one-stop shop branches at industrial zones.