The_Open_Door_deel1

Venture and a mining company owned by Liberians of tribal descent,
the Kitoma Mining and Trading Company. The outcome of
this dispute - which was in favour of the multinational company
y - can be considered illustrative of the opportunities pp
of
|| fered f to tribal Liberians to play a leading role in the econ-
|| omic development of their country.
The other iron mining company exploits the iron ore deposits of
the Bong Range in the central part of the country. This company,
the Deutsch-Liberian Mining Company, called today the Bong Mining
Company, is outstanding in that it has the best performance
as compared with the other three iron ore mining companies operating
in the country. In general, the companies financed with
European capital have a better performance - in terms of relations
with the host Government - than those financed with U.S.
capital.
The third iron ore mining company included in this Chapter is
the Liberian Iron and Steel Company, another venture started
by Lee Detwiler. Intended to exploit the iron ore deposits of
the Wologisi Range, the company never went into production, for
reasons which are explained in this Chapter. At the end of the
1970's the concession was held by Japanese investors.
1
||
XIX
Chapter 9 deals with the forestry sector and its gradually growing
importance for the national economy. The rich tropical rain
forests of Liberia offer a great variety of trees, with an estimated
275 to 300 different species, and with timber ranging from
very light and soft wood to the heaviest ebony hard wood. The
chapter specifically discusses the Liberian Government's administrative
and institutional incapacity to supervise the logging
companies which had obtained concession agreements from it -
and which numbered more than forty in the late 1970's. After a
discussion of the attempts to establish a national wood processing
industry, frustrated by an alliance between members of the
country's political elite and the foreign investors, this chapter
ends with another dispute. This controversy once again shows
that participation of tribal Liberians in the economic affairs
of the country was not welcomed, or tolerated, by those in power:
the Americo-Liberian elite.
Although each of the preceding chapters on the performances of
foreign companies has already dealt with the fiscal contribution
of these foreign investors, Chapter 10 includes this again
with the analysis of Liberia's fiscal performance during this
era of foreign investments, starting with the arrival of Firestone
in 1926. Great importance was attached to the Government's
capacity to monitor the activities of the foreign investors and
to its planning of the socio-economic development of the country
in general. The use of foreign funds and manpower originating
from international financial institutions - including commercial
banks - and foreign governments played an increasingly important
role in this respect. Special attention was given to the diffusion
of these indirect benefits of the Open Door Policy: the
development of the rural and urban areas respectively.