What has been your professional background until your nomination as Minister of Transport ?
For about a decade prior to the civil crisis, I worked with the National Investment Commission. My final assignment there was to manage the Commission's financial assets and other investments. I also served as Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs during the interim period and worked on the national social rehabilitation program. After the election I was appointed member of the Council of Economic Advisors, which I chaired for the six months immediately preceding my appointment as Minister of Transport.
How successful have you been in attracting investment?
We were successful in attracting some foreign investments, but not in the direction we desired. As a raw material producing country, we preferred, and still prefer today, to develop secondary industries in processing and manufacturing. Those would be the most rewarding of our economic activities, because, for example, employment per $ of investment is higher than in most other productive endeavors. That was our target, but we did not achieve much mainly because we lack the home market for mass production. I have always challenged that reason, because we do not have to be the only consumer of goods we produce; after all, more than 60% of what we consume here comes from outside. So if we produce here we should be able to sell in other markets. Isn't that what globalization is all about? We should not be condemned to producing only for our own market.
How would you rate the quality of infrastructures in Liberia?
Transport and communication infrastructures are in deplorable state after a decade of war. We stand in a great need of redeveloping our infrastructure, it represents a substantial opportunity for investment.
What are your expectations in that respect?
We realized that we probably did not have the best approach to attracting private investment, so for the last year we have been revising a lot of our laws, including the investment incentive code. We have focused on the reduction of non-productive costs that are borne by investors. For example, taxes on equipment add to cost but do not increase productivity of the investment. We try to shake off some of these costs, and then create other packages of incentives that would be beneficial to those who undertake investment in key areas, as when we redid the forestry law. We are now granting "quality incentives" -certain privileges and benefits. To be eligible for these benefits, you just need to meet certain criteria such as the level of investment, and the degree and scale of processing. For example, to be allowed to produce more than a certain quantity of timbers, you will be required to do a defined degree of processing before exporting the products. You can also get a larger area of forest and more cut on your taxes because you bring more jobs, technology and know-how to the country. We have been changing the rules and conditions of investment to let more private capital come in.
To What extents have these challenges brought changes to your Ministry?
The broad impact has not been significant, but new partners have come in, like Sabena, who decided to seize the opportunity although the traffic is still very low. Although we have not signed the open sky agreement, our civil aviation policy has been quite close to that, and still on its way to modernization. We believe that more and more airlines are coming, but we have to do more work to improve the general economic situation so that the traffic grows and therefore the business. The return of Sabena marks a gradual return of international carriers to Monrovia.
What is your assessment of the domestic air travel?
Because of the poor state of domestic airports and facilities, internal commercial air transportation has not restarted yet, though there are a number of domestic airlines, notably Weasuah, and recently Simon Air. The latter was established by a German national to provide air transport services between Monrovia and Frankfurt. Once the compliance to safety rules of air transport were proven, we allowed carrying on this service. Our major concern being safety, airlines that meet the required standard to conduct safe flights will get good opportunities here to establish a more permanent type of air transportation.
Is Simon Air a good example of domestic airline that is gradually progressing and attracting passengers?
Yes, it is an example of the initial response to the improving environment for doing business in our country. I hope that Simon Air will succeed. Yield on the Monrovia/Frankfurt route is not predictable with accuracy, as it has been heretofore both untouched and untapped. | In what state are the airport facilities, are there any local airport ?
Even though there are few domestic airfields in operations right now, such as the ones in Harper and Greenville, the general situation of the airport facilities is poor. We have programs to rehabilitate several airports to improve the conditions of the runways, and to restore some of the facilities for the passengers and for cargo services. This redevelopment challenge offers some opportunity for investment; which we would like to invite investors to undertake.
What is the present state of the maritime fleet?
We have a Maritime transportation sector and also a ship registry, and it remained part of our concern since the war. But the ship registry is managed by an autonomous agency, the Maritime Bureau, not us. We however have most of our shipping agencies back into operation, although the volume of transportation, either in export or imports, has not recovered fully. Exports because the quality of raw materials we used to ship is not being produced now; and imports because of the limited capacity of the country itself to import huge volumes. We believe that sector will grow to attract investors to bring in capital to help us develop the present structures.
What would you like to achieve under your Ministry?
Considering our situation, there are many things to be done and it is hard to identify priorities. We would like to focus on changing the way to conduct our transport business in the country at two different levels. First we want to extend invitation to private investors to participate in the reconstruction of transport infrastructure. Infrastructure development, management and maintenance have in the past been left to the government; we want to change that. Secondly, we would like to take private sector role in transportation one step further, to private ownership, management and maintenance of most of the infrastructures. This change is necessary because we will not be able, as a government, to maintain the infrastructures; that is the major problem we have always had.
What message would you address to Asian countries?
I think that those who have been here before know the capacity of the transportation infrastructure, the system and the constraints when they operated here. Now, expectations of improvement in the economic productivity and production lead us to anticipate a huge demand for transportation services. We want to change the system of transportation; we think that there should be separate, private transportation companies to provide transport services to producers. Producers who conduct their own transportation, as it was done in the past, and get a more efficient and cost effective result will be able to continue; nevertheless we believe that private transportation companies can provide expertise and more efficient adapted services. We see transportation as a service to be provided by entities other then those involved in other production requiring transport- a service that requires committed investment and expertise.
What has been your most challenging and rewarding experience as Minister of Transportation?
The challenge is to create strong and cooperative links between us and other agencies that have jurisdiction in some aspects of transport or in infrastructure. We want to collaborate and to cooperate more so that we take the right direction and work as a team rather than as separate entities. That is the biggest challenge the Ministry faces. Regarding some of the desired immediate improvements, we would like to see a project of public transport terminals to provide convenience for commuters. And considering the number of people who would be passing through these facilities, transit terminals can become major business and shopping centers. Monrovia also has easily navigable waterways, which we believe will not cost too much to develop, though the feasibility studies have not been carried out. The Government would provide help in procuring the land and maybe finance some of the feasibility studies. We are passing these ideas by some private partners, in order to catch some attention in the private investors community.
What has been the feedback?
There are some prospects: a major domestic insurance company has already expressed some interest in the idea both as an investment and a means to improve access to some of its properties.
What would your message be to our readers?
Come and see for yourself, learn about our country, experience the hospitality of our people, and seize the business opportunities we offer. |
MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT