Friday, September 26, 2014

Identifying our competitive advantage


It is very important to understand the competitive advantage of one nation or community over the other in order to to tap its potential resources. I was asking myself about what are the things that are abundant and can be marketed in our area and I have identified the following:

  • "Enset" and its related products like "kancha", "Jibba" etc
  • bamboo tree (Kerkeha)
  • Chatt
  • Coffee
  • Grains ( Wheat, Maize, Sorgum, beans, peas etc)
  • cattle and its products
  • Minerals

I do not exactly know the area very well and i cannot specifically say producing this or that is a competitive advantage for us. Someone may give his opinion on this. However, those i mentioned above seems to me good areas where we can produce and take advantage of.
It is amazing that our capital Saja lies on the road to Addis Ababa. I believe this is an advange to ship and sell our products to the vast market in Addis Ababa area. The main road from Addis Ababa to Jimma help us to transport our raw materials and finished goods to and from Saja. Jimma , Illubabor, Bonga, and welega are also very crucial areas to sell our products. We are in the middle of the west and central part of the country and I believe that is a very good advantage for our people.
In addition to the highway, I believe that establishing a rail road from Saja to Addis may give us the chance to mobilize the products and raw materials easily and with low cost. Who can build this kind of infrastructure to the advantage of our people?
Our heroic and honest people are our advantage to maximize our wealth as a community. It is the responsibility of each of us to outsmart others and make a real difference to the good of our people. Creativity, collaboration, effectiveness and flexibility would count in the process of creating and preserving the wealth of our people. For this cause , we encourage the young to focus on science and technology, mathematics, engineering and business. We are few in number and it is hard to compete with others. We can beat any competitor if we focus on quality. Quality of each individual we have really matters in the success of our people as a community. What do I mean by quality of individual? By quality I meant in terms of education, finance, knowledge, wisdom, competitiveness, heroism, excelling in all walk of life be it in professional or nonprofessional activities. That only makes us recognized and respected as a people.