LIBERIAN ECONOMY

INTRODUCTION Liberia is a low income country heavily reliant on foreign assistance for revenue. Civil war and government mismanagement destroyed much of Liberia's economy, especially the infrastructure in and around the capital, Monrovia. Liberia has the distinction of having the highest ratio of direct foreign investment to GDP in the world. Richly endowed with water, mineral resources, forests, and a climate favorable to agriculture, Liberia had been a producer and exporter of basic products, primarily raw timber and rubber and is reviving those sectors. Local manufacturing, mainly foreign owned, had been small in scope. Rebuilding infrastructure and raising incomes will depend on generous financial and technical assistance from donor countries and foreign investment in key sectors, such as infrastructure and power generation. Population below poverty line: 80% of total population (3110308) Contribution from services: 17.7% of total GDP ($172.929 million) Major companies:
Agro, Inc. An integrated provider of agricultural products and services linking farmers to markets. It is headquartered on Capitol Hill in Monrovia, Liberia. This agro-industrial firm specializes in the

establishment and management of industrial as well as smallholders' plantations and allied processing and downstream industries. The primary focus of its tree crops centers on oil palm and natural rubber plantations. Agro recently diversified activities towards rubber wood harvesting and cassava production and processing. Firestone Natural Rubber Company The weather conditions, availability of required land for cultivation, labor force availability, proximity to developed markets like North America and European countries and slowly changing sound political stability has made Liberia an excellent place for natural rubber cultivation. Other Major Private Palm oil processing companies Sime Darby

Golden veroleum Equatorial Oil Palm The favorable agro-climatic conditions of Liberia ensure that the potentials of the oil palm sector are quite impressive compared to sub regional sectors with poorer soils and significant moisture deficits. Top Timber companies Industrial Trading Trust Liberian Industrial Forestry Corp. Morro River Lumber Corp. Liberian Timber Industries Corp. Siga Lumber Company Maryland Logging Company Most of the companies are government operated in the timber industry but there is a lot of investment from the foreign players in this sector. Extractive Industries Transparency has been introduced where in payments from private companies to the government are being monitored and illegal cutting of trees is also being monitored by the government bodies.

Sources: http://www.africacncl.org/Events/downloads/Mr._Keith_Jubah.pdf http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/ODP/Lessons/Recommendations/ConcessionAffairs/Agreements Studied/ForestryTimberLogging.htm http://static.zsl.org/files/session-4-3-chea-garley-the-outlook-for-large-scale-oil-palm-expansion-inliberia-1475.pdf