The Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association (ECCSA) announced that it will not leave the bid to host the biggest ever international chamber congress in 2021.
The national chamber which was selected as one of the six bidders to host the 12th World Chamber Congress, an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) event, World Chambers Federation said that it will go through with the competition to host the event that is held every two years.
Kenya is one of the six countries competing to host the event. The two neighbors are the only African countries that are shortlisted by the International Chamber of Commerce to bid for the upcoming show.
Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) recently announced that it is lobbying its Ethiopian counterpart to leave the competition to show African solidarity. South Africa has hosted the event before in 2005.
However Solomon Afework, president of ECCSA, declined this issue. He told Capital that this is not the issue of the national chamber but it is related with the interest of the nation, other stake holders and the government as a whole.
“Due to that we could not decide to leave the bid since we are also interested to host this big event on our soil,” he added.
He said that the two chambers had met on the sideline at Sydney, Australia on the 10th World Chamber Congress held this year from September 19 to 21.
“On the meeting chaired by both the ECCSA and KNCCI We have been discussing with other African chambers that included the Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan among others on the aim to work together to bring the 12th congress on the African city. Otherwise the issue of withdrawing from the bid is not mentioned on the meeting,” Solomon ridiculed the comment from the Kenyan side.
“We are discussing to work in a collaborative manner to bring the event to Africa, while letting the best candidates compete for it,” he added.
The other four nations shortlisted for the upcoming event, UAE (Dubai), Oman, Jordan and Iran, are all working towards getting the chance to host the event, which is considered as a good opportunity to promote the nation, business and business potentials for other.
According to the information that Capital received Dubai is working aggressively to grab the congress.
Solomon said that the country has better experience hosting such kind of big events that gather thousands of participants.
He mentioned that the recent forum has created good opportunity to lobby potential voters for the election process that will be held in the first quarter of 2018.
He said the Kenyan and Ethiopia chambers will meet in the coming December in Djibouti on the event that Djibouti organized and further discussions will be held there.
“If they come with sound reason we would support them but the issue will depend on the future situation,” Solomon added.
Traditionally, like other big international events, there is stiff competition between national or city chambers to host this event.
The congress commenced when Marseille, a city with the oldest chamber of commerce in the world with more than 400 years old organized the first ever World Chambers Congress in 1999.
Organized by the ICC World Chambers Federation, the World Chambers Congress is the only international forum for chamber leaders and professionals to share their best-practices, exchange insights, develop networks, address the latest business issues affecting their communities and learn about new areas of innovation from chambers around the world.
Held every two years in different regions of the world, the Congress provides unparalleled opportunities to connect and strengthen relations with a diverse and international group of individuals representing more than 110 countries.
The next ICC WCF World Chambers Congress in 2019 will be co-organized by the Brazilian Commercial and Business Associations (CACB) and will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Source: capitalethiopia