2. The preference for foreigners in
   state-owned enterprises

Many state-owned enterprises and ventures were managed by expatriates or by foreign companies holding management contracts. Examples:

• Air Liberia,

• Robertsfield International Airport,

• Robertsfield Hotel,

• Ducor Hotel,

• Africa Hotel and the O.A.U. Conference Center,¹

• the Liberian Produce Marketing Corporation (LPMC),

• the Liberian Rubber Processing Corporation (LRPC),

• the Liberian Rubber Articles Manufacturing Company (LIRAMCO),

• Agrimeco,

• the Liberian Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC) 

The same applied to partially Government owned companies such as: 

• the National Iron Ore Companies (NIOC),

• the Liberian Bank for Industrial Development (LBDI),

• the Central Printing Press Inc.,

• the Liberia Timber and Plywood Corporation (formerly called Vanply of Liberia) which was 51% owned by the country’s only political party, the ruling True Whig Party.

• Liberian investments abroad

¹⁾ Under Doe’s regime the contracting of foreign managers continued, the most notorious example being the management of the Africa Hotel. This was granted to one Gus van Kouwenhoven, a Dutch national who would become associated with Charles Taylor’s predatory presidency which eventually led to his arrest and trial in the Netherlands.

Conclusions

Lessons from Foreign Investments

home