The FDRE Policy Studies Institute (PSI) organized a validation workshop on ‘Ethiopia Productivity’ on the 8th of August, 2019 at Eliliy International Hotel.
The workshop began with welcoming remarks by Dr. Yohannes Ayalew, Deputy Director General, PSI and Head of Macroeconomic and Financial Policy Studies Center at PSI. Dr. Yohannes warmly welcomed the participants to the very relevant joint validation workshop and recalled that this workshop is organized as a follow up to the one that shared the stakeholders an interim report on Ethiopia productivity, on the 22nd of February 2019.
He briefed the participants that the report is jointly initiated by the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) and the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) to share and discuss the findings of the report with a wider audience as it is in final stage.
Picture of Dr. Yohannes Ayalew, Deputy Director General, PSI
In his welcoming speech, Dr. Yohannes mentioned some of the projects that indicate the strong partnership between Ethiopia and Japan. He then paid tribute to the research team with special thanks the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) for financing and technically supporting the report development.
Picture of His Excellency H.E. Mr. Getachew Adem, Deputy Commissioner, Planning and Development Commission.
In this event opening speech was delivered by His Excellency H.E. Mr. Getachew Adem, Deputy Commissioner, Planning and Development Commission. His Excellency H.E. Mr. Getachew Adem on his part underlined that the study will have a potential input to the effort of the government for policy formulation in terms of examining and analyzing labor productivity challenges in the emerging garment sector in Ethiopia. He further mentioned that productivity does have a very important implication to the real national economy, social progress and standard of living. H.E. Mr. Getachew said that the pursuit of productivity has become Ethiopia’s key policy direction in the Growth and Transformation Plan II (GTP II), particularly in enhancing the productivity of the manufacturing sectors. He added that addressing multiple aspects of productivity gaps through similar studies would help Ethiopia’s manufacturing sector to be competent in the international market and help policy makers to have a better and informed policy making opportunity. Besides, H.E. Mr. Getachew told participants that the final version of the study is supposed to be used as an input for GTP 3 preparation which is underway at his office. Recognizing the benefit of such project, H.E. Mr. Getachew praised PSI, GRIPS and JICA for taking the initiative to produce the Ethiopia Productivity Report.
Following this, the facilitator of the workshop invited JICA’s Director General Mr. Hironobu Murakami to make a remark of his part. Mr. Hironobu Murakami recalled the participants on the previous workshop held on 22nd of February 2019 to organize to consult key stakeholders over the interim report of Ethiopian Productivity Report. According to Mr. Hironobu Murakami, this workshop forum was organized with active involvement of his colleague Professor Kenichi Ohno from GRIPS and being supported by other researchers and development partners. This joint stakeholder’s workshop focusing on the Ethiopian Productivity Report is going to contribute to the Ethiopian Garment Industry development, being a tool of policy dialogue platform. He also evoked participants that JICA was involved in consulting the Ethiopian government during the development the comprehensive plans, GTP 1 and GTP 2; different aspects of lessons to be drawn from these two Grand National development strategies would also be used as inputs for the development of GTP 3.
Picture of Mr. Hironobu
This event involved three presentations. The first presentation was made by Dr Kidanemariam Berhe, Lead Researcher at PSI. This presentation mainly focused on outlining the overall growth achievement across the three development strategies PASDEP, GTP1 and GTP2 and trends of productivity; objectives of the report and the major focus of the report analysis which is divided into two main parts: Economy-wide productivity and Manufacturing sector productivity. The second presentation was made by Dr. Mulu Gebreeyesus, Lead Researcher at PSI. He presented summary of the field survey on the apparel industry conducted. He did his presentation focusing on sampling, basic characteristics of firms in the sample, labor mindset and quality, management practices, Policy and external conditions.
Picture of presenters
The third presentation in the workshop was given by Professor Kenichi Ohno from National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). His presentation mainly focused on outlining policy measures that need to be considered to enhance productivity.
The presentation session was followed up with reflections and discussions. This event was attended by high level policy makers, government bureaucrats, and key experts from think tanks, the academia and the private sector, such as industry associations.
