Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Liberia — still picking up the pieces(Features page) August 4, 2008

By :Michael Donkor, Back from Liberia
A peaceful environment is conducive not only to the orderly transaction of business but also for the attraction of foreign capital deemed necessary for the socio-economic transformation of developing countries.
War is devastating as it strips people of their wealth and derails their efforts at national development. This scenario was obvious when I visited Liberia recently as part of a delegation led by the Minister of Defence, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, to witness the award of the United Nations meritorious medals to Ghanaian troops serving with its Mission in that Country.
I have seen footages of the war on television but I had not in the least imagined anything so dreadful in a people devastated by war and its attendant atrocities.
What I met on arrival at the Roberts International Airport was disappointment and despair among the citizens of this lovely nation which had played a significant role in Africa’s Renaissance. What is left of Liberia now are a despairing old people, a disillusioned and frightened adult population and a youth that is unfortunately steeled in warfare and would need decades to re-orientate.
The devastation of infrastructure is a pitiful sight to behold and is one’s hope that the West would assist in the reconstruction of the country. Ghana and Liberia have already signed an agreement for the Ghana Armed Forces to train soldiers of the Liberian Armed Forces.
Ghana is to also send some of its soldiers to Liberia to train their new recruits into their army. Currently the United Nations Mission in Liberia(UNMIL) is helping to maintain peace and order in that country and is expected to finally pull out its troops by December 2011.
If what I saw and heard during the visit is anything to go by, then the country is poised to put the past behind it and to forge ahead with the reconstruction exercise as Liberia is not all gloomy.
The optimism of the people and hopes of the government, give an indication of a country set for resurrection. Prior to the war, the country had encouraged foreign investment in the development of its rich natural resources, mainly rubber, iron ore, and timber.
Many of these investors have been slow to return after the end of hostilities. Liberia’s gross domestic product (GDP)—the total value of goods and services produced within a country had dropped to a fraction of pre-war levels. The civil war destroyed Liberia’s already dilapidated transportation network.
Railroads that connected port cities with now-defunct iron mines have deteriorated and are no longer operable. Only about six per cent of the country’s roads were paved in 1999. The major airport, Roberts International Airport in Monrovia can be compared to Ghana’s Air field at Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region.
With the poor state of the capital and other counties I visited, I was told that the economy had improved after the end of the civil war. Large numbers of returning refugees have led to high unemployment rates in Liberia.
Liberia is bounded on the north by Sierra Leone and Guinea, on the east by La Côte d’Ivoire, and on the south and west by the Atlantic Ocean. Mangrove trees line Liberia’s tidal estuaries and lagoons. Beyond the coast grow various kinds of palms, screw pines, and rubber trees.
In the evergreen forests are a mixed assortment of hardwood and broadleaf species, including ironwood and sassy. Deciduous forests, less dense than the evergreen forests, yield mahogany and softwoods. Wildlife has been depleted and survives mainly in the east and northwest.
Although Liberia has primarily an agricultural economy, minerals and forest products such as wood and rubber are its most important resources. The country has significant deposits of iron ore, diamonds, and gold. An estimated 48 per cent of people within Liberia live in cities and towns and make their living by farming or herding. Rice and cassava are the principal food crops of Liberia. Liberia’s dominant export crop is rubber, the production of which rebounded quickly after the end of the civil war. Companies like Firestone and Liberia Agriculture Company which are into rubber production were in full scale operation when I visited that country.
In 1926, the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company opened a rubber plantation of 400,000 hectares (one million acres) of land granted by the Liberian government the year before. Rubber production became the mainstay of the nation’s economy.
Following his election in May 1943, President William V. S. Tubman pursued a policy of national unification and economic development through foreign investment. The latter policy led to the exploitation in the 1950s of iron-ore deposits in the Bomi Hills, located north of Monrovia. Other cash crops include oil palm fruit (from which palm oil is extracted), coffee, cocoa, and sugar.
Timber is Liberia’s other important export earner. Most timber is exported in the form of uncut logs, but the government has encouraged development of the sawmilling industry. Most fish caught in Liberia are freshwater fish consumed locally. The Liberian commercial deep-water fishing catch includes sole, lobster, crayfish, shrimp, and crabs. Legislative power is vested in a two-chamber National Assembly. This body is composed of a Senate, whose 30 members are elected to nine-year terms, and a House of Representatives, whose 64 members are elected for six years.

No comments: