Promoting the Investment Information Services of the Ethiopian Investment Authority:
No Thumbnail Available
Date
1999-05
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Investment is one of the mechanisms by which countries can move to a higher economic,
technological and better way of life. More specifically, investment particularly, the private one
contributes a lot in developing the national market, creating wide employment opportunities for
the nation, maximizing the i'?flow offoreign capital, accelerating t~e transfer and adoption of
needed foreign technology and know-how, saving and generating foreign exchange through
import substitution, production or export promotion strategies and in bringing a strong
intersectorallinks.
Due to these advantages countries place increasing emphasis to attract private investors to make
them involved in their economy. Infacilitating this, particularly to attract foreign investors host
countries promote the investment opportunities and their resource potential by providing
accurate, relevant and timely information.
As one of these host countries, Ethiopia is encouraging the private sector participation in all
spheres of economic activities. Particularly, to attract foreign investors, the government has
setup the Ethiopian Investment Authority (EJA) to_ promote, co-ordinate, and follow-up and
'!!-onitor investment proposals. Though the government, in order to increase the participation of
private investors, has created favorable conditions in terms of investment policies, procedures,
incentives, guarantees and others, the number of projects and the initial investment capital is still
not as much as expected. The number offoreign investment projects that started operations are
inSignificant, which is less than two percent of the total.
In this study, the information needs of investors, the role of investment information promotion to
increase the inflow of foreign capital, investment information promotion planning process,
strategies of investment information promotional programs and the role of information
technology for investment information promotion have been discussed. The study has also
assessed the information needs of invest!!rs, the existing investment promotional mechanisms
used to attract foreign investors and, the problems in promoting the investment information to
foreign investors. Based on the assessment made, the information handling and investment information promotion activity of the EIA is found to be inadequate. The study has also
concluded that this inadequate service can be taken as a constraint for the inflow of foreign
investment. In order to alleviate the problems sited, the study has recommended measures that
must be taken by the EIA. It also demonstrates how to promote investment information on the
World Wide Web by developing the Web site of the Ethiopian Investment Authority.
Description
Keywords
Promoting the Investment Information Services