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Yoseph Tesfaye has been appointed Secretary General
of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral
Association (ECCSA) on August 14, 2007. It is four
months after the new Board members were elected by
the general assembly that he assumed his position.
After the first attempt to fill the position of
Secretary General failed as only six applicants had
applied for the position in which the Board
initially short listed three among them, the
decision to call it off has been followed by
re-advertising of the vacancy in June 2007 for the
second time.
In the latest contest, 12 professionals submitted
their CVs before the Board members of ECCSA and
eight were screened for interview. Subsequently, six
of them were selected for the second round of
interviews before the final four people were short
listed to pick the Secretary General, Getachew
Ayenew, president of ECCSA, disclosed.
Prior to the announcement of his nomination to
position early this week, Yoseph, an economist by
training, was working at Trade, Industry and
Development Bureau of the Tigray Regional State,
sources from ECCSA told Fortune.
Getachew said that the criteria of selection were
conducted mainly focusing on educational background,
high profile experiences and expertise. Although
70pc of the decision to choose the top candidate was
based on their educational backgrounds and the level
of posts they assumed in the past, the remaining
30pc has been decided by the interview, he added.
Although Tekalign Abate, who has been installed as
the deputy secretary general, a post created for the
first time under the direction of the newly
structured ECCSA Council, initially applied for the
general secretary’s position, already assumed his
responsibility. However, Yoseph has not started to
discharge his duty, an insider told Fortune.
On his part, before having assumed the position of
deputy secretary general, Tekalign has been working
at ECCSA in the department of Trade Information and
Documentation, and later was working as an advisor
at ECCSA, an anonymous source told Fortune.
The same source confirmed that Tekalign was one of
the four people being fired by Andualem Tegegn,
former general secretary of ECCSA. Tekalign declined
to make any comment on the matter.
Another candidate, who was one of the four short
listed contenders, Milkias Lissanu, educated in the
United States (US), and headed the project
department of the Christian Relief and Development
Association (CRDA) was willing to forward his
profile. He, however, declined to comment on the
matter before he would see the profiles of other
short listed candidates including the newly
nominated General Secretary whose name was not known
to him.
It was noted that, in April 2007, the first assembly
under the newly structured 15-member ECCSA Council
approved the election of 11 Board members, including
Getachew Ayenew from the Amhara Regional State and
Muluwork Kidanemariam of the Tigray Region,
president and vice president of ECCSA, respectively.
According to the new structure, the regional chamber
with the largest number of members will have the
highest voting power. The ECCSA Council consists of
306 members from Chambers of Commerce and Sectoral
Associations across the country. The President and
Vice President of ECCSA have a term of two years
during which period the regular general assembly
meet with members.
The Amhara Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral
Association, which has the highest membership of
38,177 from 14 chambers of commerce, and more than
160 sectoral associations, received the highest
number of seats, 107.
ECCSA was re-established to undertake activities in
line with the principles of free market economy
policies, promote trade, industry and investment, as
well as to make use of chambers of commerce and
sectoral associations as forums of the business
community in the country.
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