Lessons from foreign investments in Liberia

Recommendations:
Improvement of the concession policy

  1. The Government of Liberia should assume complete control over the nation’s natural resources.
  
 
The foreign investors should operate within a framework, defined by the Government of Liberia and which is based on the principle of national sovereignty. In the 1980s this right over the country’s natural resources had been given away to foreigners as in the case of LAMCO JV and the Bong Mining Company (BMC). In other cases, the Government tacitly allowed the illegal infringement upon this sovereign right by foreign investors.
  • In the first case, involving LAMCO and BMC, the Liberian Government’s participation of 50% (in the share capital of these companies) has become a token affair since the power to decide has been ceded to management companies, which are exclusively controlled by foreign (Sweden and German) interests.
  • In the second case, foreign owned gold and diamond mining companies as well as logging firms loot the interior of the Republic without accurate reporting, adequate compensation or equal profit-sharing.


 

  1. The Treasury’s intake from the concession sector should be increased.


     
 This 50% participation / ownership entitled the Government of Liberia to an equal share in the company’s profits. As a result, LAMCO and BMC never paid one cent taxes over their profits!
 

 

 

 

 

 

Improvement of
concession policy

 
 
 
 

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