
ADDIS ABABA– The Ethiopian Diaspora have a capacity to alleviate challenges related to the recently imposed economic sanctions by the U.S via enhancing their engagement in homeland economy and doubling remittance, Economists said.
Talking to local media, Economist Shiferaw Adisu (PhD) said that both short and long-term solutions to the unfair U.S. sanctions must focus on boosting remittance and providing direct support to the people and government of Ethiopia by members of the Diaspora . “They need also to join in a large scale investment in Ethiopia to support the economic activities.”
According to him , the U.S. economic sanctions on Ethiopia targeted to weaken the overall economic activities in the country. But, if Ethiopia manages to strengthen its internal peace and unity, focuses on its economic opportunities and attracts FDI, challenges of the sanctions will be overcome through finding permanent solutions towards ensuring prosperity.
“For the time being, the developmental aid seems to be significant in supporting to grow the country’s GDP, However, there is no country in the world that has made economic miracle depend on external aid and the only way for achieving sustainable development is properly making use of internal potentials,” he added.
For Shiferaw the U.S sanctions on Ethiopia are not the unique ones, many countries have survived similar sanctions. Hence, exploring all available economic opportunities in the country would help Ethiopia building self-reliant economy.
“ From now on , Ethiopia should give due attention towards achieving economic independence through investment.”
Apart from actively engaging in fighting against all odds of some foreign powers ,the Diaspora should put their economic support to the homeland top priority, another Economist Zelalem Teklu (PhD) said.
As to Zelalem, the annual remittance to homeland from Ethiopian Diaspora is near to four billion USD which is almost similar with external annual development aids and loans. Hence, strengthening the remittance and direct support would be enough to replace the external aids. “The Diaspora remittance is crucial to avoid the effects of external economic sanctions,” he noted.
Zelalem called the Diaspora to use the banking system to send money to Ethiopia and should prepare to mobilize resource directly if the economic sanctions really imposed.
He stated that: “If one million Diaspora directly contribute 100 USD to his country per month, Ethiopia can easily survive any economic sanctions.”
Both economists said that for the long term, Ethiopia has huge economic potential and just need to focus on its opportunities in a bid to become resilient.
BY DARGIE KAHSAY
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD MAY 28/2021