We are celebrating the third Millennium; our call to African brothers and sisters to share the celebration with us as a truly African occasion was responded overwhelmingly by heads of state of member countries of the African Union (AU). Many of them will be coming to Addis, beginning January 25, 2008.

In celebrating the African Millennium in a colourful way, the Confederation of African Athletics has awarded the staging of the 16th African Athletics Championships to Ethiopia. African countries are now undertaking strong public relations and mobilisation activities in their countries to use the championship as a unique opportunity to celebrate the Millennium. We are now just five months away from the opening ceremony of the biggest-ever sporting event in the history of Ethiopia, where we will be welcoming our African brothers and sisters from 50 countries across the continent.

For five days, from April 30 to May 4, 2008, the continent's attention will be grabbed by the Championships to be held here. Spectators, athletes, international guests and members of the media from around the world will be descending on Addis in large numbers. The waves of excitement generated in Addis Abeba will reverberate around the continent.

Far beyond being a sporting festival, however, the Championships are also believed to strengthen brotherhood, reinforce the already existing solidarity, promote cross-cultural exchange and leave a lasting memory the people of Africa. The event, by bringing all Africans to their diplomatic capital, will enable a celebration of the African Millennium as a distinctive continental showcase.

We have indeed done everything we can to contribute whatever little we have to build a better Africa. Nevertheless, this will be a time where we will be challenged to prove it again. What we have done and will do must give us sufficient cause to stand proud among the community of nations as a contributor to the common continental struggle in building a better life for the people. The Championships will also be an opportunity to say to our brothers and sisters in Africa that they were right in choosing our country as the venue for the various functionaries who will meet here to deliberate on the improvement of the human conditions in Africa.

As a premiere athletics competition organised by the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) and one of the select international events where athletes can earn qualification minimums for the Olympic games in Beijing, we must prove that our African brothers and sisters are coming to the roots of athletics. Thus, we all have to stand for the success of the Championships.

Sports have always been an important part of society, but it has now become an increasingly important part of the economy. Since its formative years, sports have had a commercial component to its operation. However, in no previous time have we seen the type of growth in the commercialisation of sports than we have seen in the last two decades. Today, sport is big business; and big businesses are heavily involved in it.

Athletes in major spectator sports are marketable commodities: sports teams are traded on the stock markets, sponsorship rights at major events can cost billions of dollars, network television stations pay large fees to broadcast games and the merchandising and licensing of sporting goods is a major multi-national businesses.

I would argue that the staging of such major sporting events give us significant social, political and economic benefits. Of course, the first two might be indirect.

If we take the economic impact of major sport events, it can be seen as the net change in an economy resulting from a sports event. The change is caused by activities involving the acquisition, operation, development, and use of sport facilities and services. These in turn generate consumer spending by visitors and residents, employment opportunities, and enhanced tax revenues for the state.

Specifically, the economic impacts of expenditure are composed of direct, indirect, and induced effects. Direct effects could be the purchases needed to meet the increased demand of visitors for goods and services. Indirect effects might be the ripple effect as the visiting spectators' dollars circulate through the economy. Whereas the induced effects would be the increase in employment and household income; the results from the economic activities are stimulated by the direct and indirect effects.

Hosting a sports event brings the host a number of intangible benefits to its communities. Among those benefits, at least theoretically, are visibility, positive spirit and enhanced community image.

In practice, however, major sports events have become a valued source of revenue for larger cities worldwide, leading to fierce bidding wars. The events bring economic benefits to the host city and the country. This might be in the form of financial benefits, such as visitors' (spectators, delegations, officials and the media) spending, the income earned by local firms in the catering and accommodation industry, tax income generation, temporary employment, commercial income from ticket sales, sponsorship, television rights and merchandising investments in sports stadiums.

It is always difficult to quantify the monetary values of such events, especially given the number of benefits that evade measurement, such as the inspirational impact on young people, the stimulation to investment and the improvement of a city's or country's image, to name just a few. Perceived wisdom has it that in the longer-term people will return to Ethiopia as a result. The real economic success of a showcase event such as the 16th African Athletics Championships will be in convincing first-time visitors to come back again.

How Ethiopia markets its cultural attractions to visiting spectators at the Championships will also determine how successful the country is in drawing back high-income tourists. In this sense, a properly delivered event could even serve as an instrument for a city renaissance.

The 16th African Athletics Championship is a continental event with an international audience, which will give a global profile to Ethiopia. It will also provide Ethiopia a "window-shopping" opportunity; it is inevitable that local firms will enjoy a slice of the action.