Business Regulation in Ethiopia: the Case of Road Transportation Service

In Ethiopia through the liberalization process starting in 1991, the government has made considerable economic changes by adopting policies of deregulation, privatization and market liberalization. In recognizing the legal right for all market players to freely interact with each other, the Government reserves the power to regulate several business sectors and delegate each ministerial office to play a regulatory role in its own affairs. In addition to the policy document that advances liberalizing the service sector, there are regulations designed by the Government in order to oversee the activities in each service sector and a competition law that facilitates the playing field in the market free from unfair and anti-competitive practices. However, even after taking all these reforms, the sector still remains inefficient and ineffective to meet the demand and satisfy the interests of the public at large. Therefore this book is intended to be the first major effort to examine the regulatory role of the government and its compatibility with the principle of free enterprise economic policy and the economic policy the like thereof which the country has launched.