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Foreign firms to help Ethiopia study telecom and finance sectors
Two foreign firms have been selected by the Ethiopian Ministry of Trade and Industry to study the finance and telecom sectors, in order to help Ethiopian trade negotiators enter the accession process at the World Trade Organization.
The German BKP has signed an agreement with officials at the Ministry to conduct an assessment on the impact of opening the financial sector to foreign competition, while the American company, Nathan Associates, has been contracted to study the impact of liberalizing the telecom sector.
Ethiopia's application for membership was accepted following a working party under the chairmanship of the United Kingdom. But it took another two years before the Council approved the working party document. They agreed with the document only after attaching strong conditions for those trusted with trade negotiations with WTO member countries.
After securing a $300,000 grant from the World Bank, the Ministry had issued an international tender to select qualified firms to conduct impact assessments on both sectors. Eleven companies responded to the announcement, including two local companies, whose identity remains undisclosed. Trade negotiators hope that the result of these assessments and recommendations will help them engage interested parties within the
WTO.
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