Liberian Progress TUBMAN REGIME’S ECONOMIC RECORD

Press, Volume C, Issue 29699, 18 December 1961, Page 14

Liberian Progress TUBMAN REGIME’S ECONOMIC RECORD

(By the Foreign Staff of the "Financial Times”! (Reprinted by Arrangement)

London November 23.—“1f anyone calls,” Lord Home might have observed last night, “tell them that I am attending the Anglo-Liberian Society dinner.” Then today the Queen is to visit Monrovia. To describe this se. queuce of events as remarkable is not, one hopes, to be guilty of condescension. It is to highlight W’hat has been achieved by President Tubman of Liberia, now in his 18th successive year of office. It has of course always been easy to make fun of Liberia. The top hats and the morning coats which the President and his officials seem to wear on the slightest possible provocation—and that in the steamy heat of the West African littoral—are obvious and sitting targets for the lampoonist. Then there has been the proverbial inefficiency of the telephone system in Monrovia, and the fact that it is often only with the utmost difficulty that one can persuade the officials to accept a letter at the capital’s head post-office. Eccentricities The list could probably be extended indefinitely. Some will mock at the almost pedantic way that the constitution has been modelled on that of the United States, others will criticise the Government's policy of ensuring that there is, an opposition candidate at presidential elections in a country which its most em. bittered critics would describe as a “Trujillo-type democracy.” The British Press perhaps has had particular motives for scornfulness: resentment at Liberia's “flag of convenience” fleet and a vague feeling that countries which have never been colonies should be shown to manage their affairs less efficiently than those that have been. But the plain fact is that while the British have been laughing at the supposed joke of a negro President in topper and tails. President Tubman has been rapidly lifting his country out of its dark ages. His basic achievements have been to build up confidence in Liberia’s credit and to make a start at welding the Afro-American aristocracy and the local population into a single nation. "Open Door” An "open door” policy—by which is meant the active encouragement of foreign investment with all the familiar paraphernalia of tax holidays and the like—has been the basis on which overseas confidence in the economy has been built up The most striking measure of what President Tubman has achieved in this respect is the colossal Liberian United States-Swedish invest, ment of some £7O million which is currently being spent on opening up the iron ore deposits st Mount Nimba All the finance for this project has been arranged. The operating company is called Lamca. Swedish interests and Bethlehem steel have each put up 50 million dollars. The United States ExportImport Bank has provided 30 million dollars and the remaining credits have come from American and German private banks. But the Germans are also more directly involved in exploiting the country’s Iron ore resources. A consortium of five German concerns is in 50-50 partnership with the Liberian Government In the development of another set >f deposits in the Bong Hills c ome 120 million dollars will be soent on this venture. When account is also taken of a DM 50 million loan which has been extended from Bonn for the development of the country’s infrastructure it is all too apparent that the Germans are determined to consolidate themselves In what eouid eventually become a profitable market. Dollar Market

Without resorting to a catalogue of the various other projects which are now on hand—a eeme * works ‘eleohone modernisation and development, and sugar factories. are some examples—it is fair to say that British companies are scarcely Involved at all. When it is re.

called that Britain was the first country to accord re. cognition to Liberia that .t was the British who first introduced the rubber tree and that a British geologist is said to have discovered the Nimba iron ore deposits it s scarcely surprising that our present efforts are not regarded very favourably in Monrovia. It is of course true that the Liberian market is of no very great dimensions at the moment. But it is a dollar market (United States dollars are the main currency—the Liberians have minted only coins). It is also a growing one. Export projections are the readiest measure of prospec-

tive growth. According to present estimates iron ore exports should reach between 21 million and 25 million tons in 1965. Iron ore exports last year were roughly 2.9 million tons valued at nearly 35 million dollars out of a total export earnings figure of 82.6 million dollars. The relevant arithmetic suggests that iron ore exports alone could almost treble total export earnings by 1965.

For various reasons the same sort of projection cannot be made with regard to Liberia’s other export commodity—rubber. But rubber exports managed to increase in value from roughly 27 million dollars in 1957 to roughly 39 million dollars last year. They will, ct course, be overtaken by iron ore at the head of the export table—very possibly this year. All the sanje there s no reason to believe that they will not go on contributing substantially to export earnings in the future. One can only assume that with the projected growth cf the export trade the demand for imports will continue to rise. It is true in a sense that the favourable trade balance which, according to official statistics, the country has maintained for the last 20 years should be treated with some reserve. Invisible items are not. recorded. Moreover since there is no Central Bank and no proper Liberian currency there are no official reserves in the normally accepted sense. Visible exports, particularly in the case of iron ore. will clearly not produce a corresponding increase in import purchasing power when Bethlehem Steel, for example, takes a quarter of the Nimba mountain output in return for its initial investment. However, even with these provisos the import outlook is encouraging. Politically, of course, it does not pay to be other than cautious anywhere in Africa today. There have been strikes in Monrovia, recently (although the head of the T.U.C is the President’s ion). But perhaps because it has never been under colonial rule—and has thus missed the passionate feelings which go with independence—Llberta looks st least as stable as most of Its neighbours. Certainly there is a lot of foreign money Invested on the assumption that it is a safe bet. Personal Items Sir Robert Knox, of Melbourne. chairman of directors of the National Mutual Life Association of Australasia. Ltd., is on board the cruise ship Oriana. which will visit Lyttelton on Wednesday. He will pay a brief visit to Wellington, where he will have discussions with Mr S R Ellis, the comnany’s manager for New Zealand. Mr W. J. Cartwright has been appointed GovernorGeneral’s representative on the newlv-constituted council of Lincoln College. He replaces Mr J. E. Strachan.