The_Open_Door_deel1

CHAPTER 14
Conclusions
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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
One of the major conclusions of the present study is that in
spite of a long history of foreign investments, Liberians today,
in general, still lack the basic skill and experience to satisfactorily
perform the management and technical duties which expatriate
managers, mining engineers and other technicians, administrators
and bookkeepers hold in foreign companies operating in
the country. The multinational corporations could have contributed
more substantially to the growth and development of the
Liberian economy than they actually did.
The disappointing results of the transfer of technology teach us
that guest companies will collaborate with the host country for
the establishment of vocational training centres. They will also
finance fellowships abroad or other activities which are in the
interest of the company involved since these may eventually reduce
local costs, but these companies are reluctant to collaborate
in cases where their immediate interests are at stake. In
general, their investments are supply oriented. The nature of
these investments makes some control over the nation's natural
resources imperative.
In protecting their commercial and financial interests, the foreign
investors found important allies within the governing elite
in the country. Both groups feared the majority of the Liberian
people which could reduce or even eliminate the privileges they
both enjoyed in the event that they would have come in control
of the political system. Still, at least a potential controversy
exists between the foreign investors and the ruling minority of
Liberia since the former also rejected the idea of being controlled
by Americo-Liberians while exploiting the country's natural
resources. The latter had no choice but to accept the economic
domination of foreign capital and manpower if they wanted
to survive politically in a country where the tribal population
outnumbered them more than fifty times.
As this study has made clear, the Americo-Liberian preference
for foreigners over tribal Liberians to build up a modern economy
dates from the beginning of the present century, if not earlier.
The tribal people were merely used by the politically elite
if they were needed. Thus, tribal people were granted citizenship
in a period when the Liberian Government needed to justify
its claim and consequent defense of the Hinterland (1907). The
granting of suffrage and other political rights had a very limited
meaning given the country's de facto one party structure and
the power of the ruling True Whig Party. When an increasing number
of foreign companies entered the country and when in surrounding
areas the colonial powers withdrew, the Liberian Government
introduced a major administrative and political reform, granting
the tribal people of the Hinterland representation in the