House Speaker Dr. Bhofal Chambers says while he is cognizant of the IMF’s pieces of advice to the Government of Liberia regarding austerity measure to revamp the economy, he however believes that no amount of austerity can reach Liberia to its economic heights unless the country grows its budget, build its economy, and create the opportunities as well as the environments for its citizens to prosper.
The House Speaker further expressed the belief that when other potential areas of the Liberian economy are tapped, the national budget of the country can reach a billion dollar, and Liberia could get on a trajectory to becoming a middle income country.
He spoke at the Capitol Building when he received officials of the Law Reform Commission (LRC), headed by Cllr. Boakai Kanneh, Chairman of the Commission, flanked by Cllr. Felecia Coleman and Cllr. Ruth Jappah, Members of the Commission
He told the LRC officials that to explore other productive sectors for Liberia’s potential at economic viability from the country’s natural resources, a legislative-led Technical Committee is underway to work with his colleagues to ensure funding in the 2019/2020 budget presently under scrutiny at the Legislature. He said his efforts will support the Special Legislative-led Technical Committee comprises other technocrats from within the eco-system of the Liberian Government.
The speaker said the technical committee will also explore ways and means that Liberia can benefit economically from its natural resources, with initial focus on the fisheries, mining, and logging sectors as done in other countries.
He named the Republic of Botswana which has gotten enviable economic gains from the management of its mining sector, Norway with good success story in the management of its fishing industry comparable to Liberia’s fishing Industry potential and the Federal Republic of Germany with successes in the management of its forest sector as scenarios that could be used to find a roadmap on how to fix Liberia’s challenges in the management of its forestry productive sectors through better laws governing those sectors.
For his part, Cllr. Boakai Kanneh, Chairman of the Law Reform Commission told Speaker Chambers that most of the laws of the country are been deemed antiquated, and underscored a need to rewrite several of the country’s laws to fit in with present day realities. He said even the Constitution of Liberia is incomplete.
Cllr. Kanneh further said that the Act of Legislature creating the Law Reform Commission gives it a responsibility to closely work with the Legislature to give their opinions or review on every piece of legislation they received, during and after passage, before reaching the President for signature, describing the commission’s workings with the Legislature as “crucial”.
Cllr. Kanneh divulged that his Commission has drawn up a policy document referred to as the “National Law Reform Policy,” and that the Commission will be resubmitting said document to the Legislature in the soonest possible time.
In closing, Cllr. Kanneh said most of the problems with some sectors of the Liberian economy have been to be the kinds of laws governing the sectors, but promised to work with the Legislature to help fix the challenges.