Cyber Ethiopia

While the world is offering enormous commercial opportunities for products of small enterprises such as fabrics, wood and stone carvings, and artifacts, Ethiopia which is well-known in making these products is still lagging behind in its supply of these products to the international market due to lack of understanding of market requirements, said Victory Lamont, a consultant working with SNV Netherlands Development Organization. In an interview with Addis Tribune, Mr. Lamont said that Ethiopian small enterprises engaged in these sectors are not grasping the economic opportunities the world is offering them. But, according to him, the sectors would have incredible possibilities of creating qualified products that could be supplied to shops and stores of the international market if developed and adapted in line with the world's

market demand, he said. The sector has a significant role in creating job opportunity, generating income and saving foreign currency, which small enterprises need badly. "This is an opportunity that African countries have at this time," Mr. Lamont said. Businesses engaged in this sector subsequently need to create market-led products and stretch their imaginations to the international market, as the local demand remains dormant, according to him. Realizing the need to empower the sectors, SNV-Netherlands Development Organization in collaboration with the Ethiopian government has organized a four-day workshop on design and product development program. The aim is to brief participants of the workshop on how to go about product design and how to develop product collections, up to the minute information on product trends around the world and know the range and diversity of products they can sell to the international market.