WHO DOES NOT want foreign investment to pour into Liberia? Certainly, nobody. Even the fiercest opposition foe would hardly reject. This is so because, like all other developing or poor countries, Liberia lacks the capacity to make use of its enormous natural resources without outside help—without foreign capital playing the key role and leading the pathway. It is an open secret that it is only by accepting foreign investment, others will say direct foreign investment, that jobs can be created for citizens in this country, royalties paid, revenue boosted and per capital soared. This is what we have to settle down for as a country and people at this time until a new order of things can emerge.
IT IS THEREFORE A source of joy and celebration when a Liberian president travels and returns with news – good news – that one developed country or another has expressed interest to come into Liberia to tap our plush resources—our fertile land, our patronizing climate, our green forests, our weighty gold and diamond amongst other things. It was not a suppress therefore that Liberians, particularly those who support the Unity Party government, sat on the edge of their seats cheering endlessness as President Joseph Nyuma Boakai spoke and reported fondly and spiritedly the good news from his recent trip abroad, particularly that which comes from the South Asian nation of Indonesia.
ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2024, during an intercessory service held for the return of the President and delegation from Indonesia and the People’s Republic of China, at the Effort Baptist Church in Paynesville, Chief Executive Joseph N. Boakai got many citizens edgy and electrified with so much good news fetched from the trip. Here are some of the goodies that got the nation afire: Indonesia to support industrialization of the Oil Palm sector in Liberia especially for the establishment of a palm oil refinery to produce cooking oil, margarines and the other derivatives for value addition; Golden Veroleum concerning determination to take the oil palm industry up the value chain and especially to maximizing production covering the area of the GVL Concession and giving support to our growers and small holder farmers; Indonesian private investors and industrialists investment with impact particularly in the establishment of Indonesian Banks in Liberia that will provide loans and source financing for major development projects.
IN CHINA, HERE is what was in the “package” of good things the president spoke about: Grant of 200 million RMB; 30 million RMB for Food assistance; 6.6 million RMB Debt waiver for payment that is currently due; 13 million RMB for agricultural equipment; LBS renovation which will enable broadcast of that entity to cover the entire country; construction of the Bridge connecting 12th Street and Somalia Drive; about $60 Million for implementation of the overhead bridges at the Ministerial Complex and SKD Boulevard Junction; Implementation for the Liberian National Grid Modernization and the construction of a 75-megawatt solar power plant in Bomi County
STILL, ACCORDING TO the President, the package includes the Chinese President’ promise to consider support for new projects including construction of roads and bridges to open up the country layout of the capital cities of the 15 counties, mining, establishment of the special economic zone (SEZ) and to bring Liberia into the Digital Age.
WHAT A SEEMINGLY successful trip. What a paradise in the making! What a reason to celebrate!
WE THANK THE President and delegation for the feat, the exploit and the diplomatic breakthrough made. Those who were wondering why the president was practically living in the airplane, from country to country and not sitting down to tackle hordes of vexing domestic challenges may get an answer from this report from Indonesia and the PRC.
BUT JUST A little reminder. Golden Veroleum, an Indonesian Company which set blades hundreds of thousands of acres in the Southeast of Liberia since 2011—mainly in Sinoe and Grand Kru—remains a nuisance to the people as we speak. From community to community, and from county to county, the cry is all the same: Liberians are turned into ‘modern slaves’, woefully underpaid due wages while Indonesian expats are raking millions in contracts and employment and taking the wealth from our land back to their country. Many villages and towns are without safe drinking water to replace damaged streams and rivers. Corporate social responsibility remains non-existent—company building concrete bridges within their farm corridors and abandoning public road connecting major towns in those counties. Roads, including those connecting GVL’s own estates and operational routes, are impassible. All MOUs signed between the Indonesian Company and communities are trampled upon, ignored and torn apart by the company. Is this how Indonesian has promised to bring imaginary paradise to Liberia? Did the government ask or care to verify what GVL has done with the first investment here in Liberia nearly twenty years now?
NOW, LET’S take a cursory look to the PRC? Three billion dollars in promised investments, we are hearing. Have we forgot so soon? Where is the Chinese promised millions overhead bridge promised to build in Monrovia? What has happened to all the MOUs with the LBS spanning as far back as ten years now?
BEFORE OTHERS FORGET so soon, just at about this time in 2018, there was a similar big announcement about the “Road and Belt Initiative” in Liberia and in China. Specifically on September 1, 2018, during a face-to-face meeting of ex-President George Weah and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Mr. Xi “directed relevant Chinese officials to begin implementing modalities with their Liberian counterparts to ensure Liberia’s admittance to China’s flagship development plan, the One Belt One Road Initiative”. With all those promises from the Chinese, what else significantly did they do since, besides seeing them winning international bidding contracts to construct Buchanan and Nimba roads funded by the World Bank and others?
WE ARE NOT trying to be unnecessarily cynical and doubtful. We are not discouraging efforts to pursue the fresh waves of promises from Indonesia and China. We are simply calling for caution, reduction in expectations because we heard similar proclamations before. It is these kinds of promises and political pronouncements that become to grievances of citizens, mainly voters, to cast vote of nonconfidence in our leaders.
SOME SAY LIBERIAN officials are often unsophisticated and/or lazy to pursue and realize diplomatic commitments and promises to Liberia. Others say some of these promising development projects are discouraged by the United States which abhor any other world powers from making break in Liberian relations. But whatever the issues, and while wishing the President Boakai well in realizing in practical way the goodies he has unveiled upon his return from Indonesian and China, we must all proceed with caution.
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