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Lessons from foreign investments in Liberia Concession agreements: |
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Three categories of concession agreements have been distinguished:
A 'Plan of Action' is proposed which should be executed in two phases. During Phase I, all agreements of the second and third categories (see above) should be immediately subjected to discussion and, if necessary, revision. After being satisfactorily discussed and possibly reviewed (‘Phase I’), a general policy of renegotiating concession agreements may be introduced (‘Phase II’). During Phase II each five to seven years every concession agreement will be reviewed in conformity with the then prevailing government policy and in the light of new economic realities. To facilitate this work, during Phase I there should be included in every concession agreement a provision which obliges the concessionaire to submit reports regularly to the Liberian Government on general or specific affairs as well as a provision which will guarantee the company’s collaboration with the Government in any case that the latter deems useful. Failure to comply with these obligations might eventually result in losing the concession. The institution which seems to be the most appropriate to execute this task is
the National Investment Commission, created in 1979 after the merger of the
Concessions Secretariat of the Finance Ministry, with the Liberian Development
Corporation, a public corporation. |
This Plan of Action was formulated in the 1980s. Though economic conditions have changed and many foreign investors have left, the basic ideas are still valid.
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fpm van der kraaij
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