Although the ways in which countries have accumulated capacity and developed according to their needs are different, the involvement and influence of the private sector, the government and various organizations in economic activity is clearly visible. Although the contribution and level of participation of each sector is different, based on the economic policies that countries’ follow and promote, it is obvious that assuring development of a country by free market only without any government intervention is difficult.In this regard, the Public Enterprises Holding and Administration is supporting the Home Grown Economic Reform, which is designed to fix the economic breaks at the national level, to increase production and productivity, and to enhance the contribution of the private sector to the country’s economic development.
The administration’s vision is to create sustainable value for stakeholders by enabling public enterprises to be competitive at the national and international level. In relation to its vision, the administration is working on long-term and short-term strategic plans that enable it to implement the five main objectives it has given in its’ establishment regulations. Through this process, public enterprises, which were deemed to collapse, started to earn profit. In addition to being profitable, public enterprises are now playing an important role in building the country’s economy by supporting other institutions and mobilizing more than 1.5 trillion birr.
At present, the government has prepared and implemented homegrown economic reform program to repair the cracks in the country’s economy. One of the pillars of the economic reform program is the reform of public enterprises. Based on this, since 2019, by surveying the country’s reform program and international benchmarks, a reform program is underway in the Public Enterprises Holding and Administration (PEHA) and public enterprises.
This change takes into account the role of public enterprises in terms of national macroeconomic reform, structural reform and public finance, and can support the economic reform agenda. Based on this, international experiences are identified and underway in focus areas. The focus areas are making public enterprises effective and competitive, enabling the leadership to be effective, building institutional capacity, supporting and facilitating transformation, and implementing corporate governance and financial systems in public enterprises.
In order to make public enterprises competitive, it is expected to pay attention to issues related to power and responsibility, decision-making, financial resources, capital structure, accounting and investment. In other words, it requires the implementation of a modern enterprise operating and management system. Corporate governance and financial systems are being implemented to address these issues.
Although the administration is working to make public enterprises nationally and internationally competitive and enable them to support the country’s economy in a better way by following strong corporate leadership principles and leadership practices, it is believed that the active participation, support and cooperation of stakeholders will play an important role in making this task more successful.
In order to accomplish this key task, building the capacity of public enterprises, enabling them to be nationally and globally competitive and strengthen their contribution to the country’s economic development has been given attention.
Therefore, I call upon stakeholders to work with the administration and public enterprises so as to make public enterprises competitive and enable them support the country’s economic development. This is vital in supporting the homegrown economic reform, fulfil its main agenda of repairing the economic crack, increasing production and productivity, there by enhance the contribution of the private sector, and jointly achieve the country’s prosperity.
Together we shall pass on a prosperous country to the next generation!
Thank you!