Ten government agencies and a trade association signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) here in Ethiopia on Saturday, June 21, 2014 for the execution of project called One Window Technology for International Trade. The project is estimated to cost U.S $ 7.3 Million and expected to save the country 16 Billion Birr in two years time.

The aim of the project is facilitating Ethiopia’s international trade through enhancing the sector’s flexibility and enabling it to cope with the existing international trade standard.

Eight companies managed to pass the first stage of the procurement for centralized online realtime electronic (CORE) system. This system is a major input for the implementation of the project. These companies are expected to present their technical proposal on the customization of the software.

Nigsusie Seid, Project Manager, said Ethiopia is suffering from extreme costs that came from outdated trade mechanisms. He added importers pay 14,000 Birr while exporters incur a cost of 10,000 Birr for a consignment on average which in turn forced the nation pay 36 Billion Birr for goods and services that did not add any value between the years 2013-2017.

Currently Ethiopia’s foreign trade faces rigidity, redundancy of data and also requirement of physical presence. This in turn costs the government as well as private investors. As a result of this the nation is facing low competiveness in the world market, slow movements of goods and expensive price of goods in the domestic market.

59 percent of the total project cost is going to be financed by the Investment Climate Facility for Africa. The Ethiopian government is going to contribute 33 percent while the rest eight percent will be covered by the World Bank.

Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority is the leading organization for the execution of the project.

Source: Fortune