BY NEW BUSINESS ETHIOPIA REPORTER
A team of artists mainly engaged in the Ethiopian entertainment industry are set to launch a new initiative of transforming the industry, which they said is neither benefiting much the professionals nor the country at the moment.
Speaking to newbusinesssethiopia.com, Desalegn Hailu, Film Actor and Director stressed that the major objective of the initiative is to lay a concrete foundation for Ethiopian art to be competent in the global market like any other industry.
The team have planned to launch their new art and business concept on Sunday, February, 27, 2010 during the networking event they organized at Desperado Bar and Restaurant-Wello Sefer in front of Ibex Hotel.
To realize their new concept of transforming Ethiopian art industry Desalegn and other three professionals from different entertainment sub sectors and an international business consultant have now established a company named ‘Strategic Business and Project Management Solutions PLC’ (SBPMS).
“From the research we have made for the past several years on Ethiopian Art industry especially the entertainment sub sector, we realized that the potentials are there even though shadowed by immense problems,” says, Temesgen Ayele, Founder and Managing Director of SBPMS, who has been serving as international consultant and lectures
in various countries.
SBPMS have prepared a strategic plan, which will make Ethiopian entertainment industry one of the top in Eastern Africa in the coming three years by actively engaging the professionals assuring them maximum benefit and generating huge income to the country.
“One of the main problems that we see in Ethiopian entertainment industry, which is now at cottage industry level, is that the professionals are earning much less than they deserve due to various reasons. We are now set to change this by empowering art professionals
of the country step by step clustering into different sub sectors,” Termesgen says.
If the professionals get what they deserve for their performance that ultimately will lead the sustainable growth of the industry. So that it will transform itself from its current stage of cottage industry and becomes an engine of the economy like we see in other countries such as Nigeria and India,” Desalegn argues.
In recent years, Ethiopia has been witnessing a fast growth of the entertainment and other arts industry mainly film, music, fashion. Following the increment of local movies from time to time, it has now become common to see long queue of spectators at the gates of cinema halls.
Meanwhile many observers the industry argue that the growth is abnormal. The critique doubt about the sustainability of the industry’s growth pointing out issues such as; absence of regulatory body, standard, issues of property rights, quality, absence of strong professional associations and dominance of the industry by non-professionals, who only care about making money at any cost and lack of incentives by the government like any other investment areas.
“Even if the problems are huge like elephant, we can solve it slice by slice if we (the professionals) strongly commit ourselves with professional ethics and engaged the public and the government,” Temsgen asserts.
