Bank Payment of Salaries Step in Right Direction

Dear Editor
 

I read the news on bank payment of salaries by Revenue authorities headlined, "Revenue Agency Adopts Bank Payment of Salaries" [Volume 9, Number 462, March 8, 2009].

It is a very good start. In the country where I reside, England, everyone gets paid directly through their bank account, or by crossed-account-payee-only cheques. The banks monitor unusual transactions in the accounts of individuals and companies. They report to the police when they find any suspicious transactions.

In Ethiopia, the banks do not question when an employed person has an unbelievably high balance or deposit. If there is a real commitment to fighting corruption, money laundering and tax evasion, all individuals should be encouraged to have bank accounts, and salaries and benefits should be paid directly into their accounts.

Banks need to be granted authority to monitor and report to the police any suspicious transactions. This significantly helps in the fight against corruption.

 Abdulmenan Mohammed
London

Ethiopia's Harry Potter Economy

Dear Editor

There is no doubt now that the global economy is contracting at a very alarming rate. Every day, we hear a downward adjustment of even very conservative forecasts on the economic growth of countries.

So is Ethiopia's economy expected to grow by 6.5pc this year, according to the IMF. This is a far cry from the 11.2pc growth projection made by the country's policymakers.

I am not writing this to pass validity to claims of either party. What caught my attention is that, if the Ethiopian policymakers are right, then the country disproves the now-discredited decoupling theory.

Does it mean that the falling world commodity prices do not affect Ethiopia's revenues from exports? What about the adverse impact on private capital inflow, say, in the form of reduced remittances? How about the shrinking amount of development assistance?

In the event that Ethiopia's economy actually defied global trends and continued to register strong growth, it sure is no cause for celebration. As outlandish as this sounds, it only means that the much-heralded integration of our economy into the global political economy is just as much a fantasy as Harry Potter's magical world.

Michael Seifu

Be Honest About Ethiopia

Dear Editors
 

One of your readers, Wondirad Seifu, wrote a note published in the “Letters to the Editor” column of this newspaper headlined, “Economic Growth Seems Overstated”, [Volume 9 Number 458, February 8, 2009] and challenged the accuracy of the inflated figure in Gross Domestic Products (GDP) reported in the January 25, 2009, issue of Fortune. He also tried to straighten the inflated figures and elaborated on the concept of GDP. Unfortunately, he did not succeed on both fronts.

K. G.

Sacramento, California

Dagmawi L.

Actioning Obama’s Change

Dear Editor

Change has been a hallmark of Barack Obama’s election campaign. Now, it is time to make it a reality on the ground. Obama’s first change was the closing down and the Guantanamo prison within a year or so, which has effectively been carried out, to the thrill of millions of people.

Again, this is indeed a reflection of his commitment to bring about change. Obama must sanction as many more changes in the future.
 

Together with this dedicated new staff and the American people, he will undoubtedly make “change” synonymous with the United States.
 

This is not an imagined ideal, but a fact that we all cherish to see realized after Bush’s eight years of boring administration. With vision, commitment and determination, Obama will achieve in the coming 100 days what his predecessor had failed to achieve in a couple of years.

Saeed Ahmed Siraj  Al-Kharj
Saudi Arabia