The Ethiopian Customs Commission (ECC) signed a cooperation agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, for the latter to give advisory support aimed at supporting the ECC’s efforts to reform the trade logistics landscape of Ethiopia.
Debele Kabeta, Commissioner of ECC and Dahlia Khalifa, Senior Manager at IFC, inked the cooperation agreement at ECC’s office in Addis Ababa.
In a joint press release, ECC and IFC explained that the advisory framework support outlined in the agreement is a three-year program to be implemented with ECC and other public and private sector stakeholders.
IFC, through its Investment Climate Facility, has been working with the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA), ECC’s predecessor, since 2013 to improve the country’s investment climate. The then cooperation had helped improve the trade facilitation environment, particularly by reforming the legal and regulatory frameworks, initiating customs risk management, launching the national Electronic Single Window (eSW) system, and streamlining of documents and procedures.
This new agreement intends to build on the former, as it is expected to improve ECC’s Customs Risk Management, establish streamlined transit and border crossing procedures and create fertile ground for the implementation of the national eSW system.
IFC has vowed continued support for the rollout and development of eSW through streamlining the various laws and regulations and their alignment with the newly designed Business Process Reengineering (BPR) at government agencies; provide capacity building of participating agencies; and designate proper procedures to integrate risk management.
“IFC’s advisory support will tackle significant drawbacks in the trade logistics sector. This partnership aligns with the Government of Ethiopia’s priorities for improving the trade logistics landscape and coincides with the National Doing Business Reform Initiative spearheaded by the Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed,” the ECC commissioner said during the signing ceremony.
IFC’s Dahlia Khalifa remarked, “Supporting an improved environment for business to trade helps expand opportunities for private investors to play a bigger role in Ethiopia’s development. Today’s agreement continues and expands our longstanding partnership with the Commission through a renewed deal to improve the trade logistics sector. The Commission has again demonstrated its commitment to realize concrete reforms that will positively impact the economy at large.
Source: Fana BC
