Chinese Ambassador to Liberia Lin Songtian has spoken highly of
business prospects in the country when he addressed the Liberian
Business Association (LIBA) in Monrovia at the weekend.
Lin said although Liberians are poor and facing a lot of
challenges ahead of the post-war national reconstruction, he had
always been confident that the west African country has "great
potentialities for economic development and prospects."
He told the LIBA that comprehensive and sustainable development
can be achieved by developing the country's natural resources to
benefit the social economic needs of the people.
"You have abundant natural resources comparing to the relatively
small population of about three million people," Lin said. "You
also have favorable climate and rich soil and arable land which are
attractive and good for the growing of rubber, oil-palm, coffee and
rice."
Liberia has an "open and all-inclusive culture and flexible
monetary and financial system, which are good for commercial
cooperation and foreign investment," he said
Although Lin acknowledged that Liberia is emerging out of 14
years of civil war for which urgent foreign aid is needed, he said
a review of the country's recent history has shown that the search
for donor and international aid tend to be a "begging practice" and
cautioned that such trends should "not be a fundamental solution to
the social and economic development of the country."
"You can expect but cannot rely on the foreign aid forever," Lin
said. "Liberia needs to create preferential environment to attract
local and international investors to develop the natural resources
of the country's long-term sustainable and comprehensive
growth."
"This approach is crucial and more practical for the post-war
national reconstruction of Liberia and should be the major one to
serve the purpose of sustainable development," he said.
Lin addressed the first quarterly dinner of the LIBA on the
theme: The Role of the People's Republic of China in the Post-war
Reconstruction of Liberia.
The LIBA is a group of diverse indigenous Liberian businessmen
and women whose objective is to promote and advocate on behalf of
Liberia-owned businesses.
President of the LIBA Samuel Mitchell said Liberian businesses
had been marginalized, indicating that foreigners had for many
decades controlled the Liberian economy.
Mitchell said, "the Liberian people want to control of their own
economy." He therefore called for preference to be given indigenous
Liberian businesses and called on the Chinese to assist Liberians
hardness their resources and for goods from China to be made in
Liberia.
In this direction, Lin assured that the Chinese government "will
render preferential policy and financial support to encourage
Chinese enterprises to conduct mutually beneficial cooperation in
Liberia" and at the same time facilitate Liberian businesses to
have access to Chinese markets.
"I hope to see more and more manufacturing and processing
industries and commercial farms emerging in Liberia," Lin said.
In addition to the special preferential tariff treatment for
Liberian-made products into Chinese markets, Lin said China has
offered to write off Liberia's over-due debts as of the end of 2004
and render fresh concession loans to Liberia.
Liberia is burdened by an external debt of US$3.5 billion and as
such, fresh concession and commercial loans have been difficult to
come due to poor productive capacity of the country.
However, Liberia has in commercial quantities iron ore, rubber,
gold and diamond with some hope of finding oil and gas.
Fourteen years of civil war which ended in 2003 had reduced the
country from a promising nation to one of the least developed
countries in the world.
(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2006)
