Description:
The Government of Liberia is in the
process of developing a new Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS)
that is intended to determine its path toward middle-income
status. One central aspect of the strategy is likely to be a
stronger focus on inclusive growth. This will mean that
higher priority will be placed on growing the local private
sector, and broadening the base of the economy.
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure and
services can be a key instrument for achieving these goals
especially in an economy like Liberia. The analysis
contained in this study identifies the steps toward
establishing PPPs as both a policy instrument and method for
deepening private sector investment in Liberia.
Liberia's rich natural resource endowments have played
a fundamental role in the way in which the economy has
developed, and in the way in which Government manages
private investment in extractive industries. The Government
itself has a long history of entering into concession
contracts with private investors and operators. Firestone
rubber first signed a concession agreement in 1926, and
re-signed their concession to last until 2041. More
recently, the Government of Liberia has entered into several
large natural resource and mining concession contracts that
will see large sums of private sector capital invested
onshore. This study is one element of a multi-faceted effort
to support local private sector and financial sector
development in Liberia. It takes into close account the
Government's focus on job-creation, the post-conflict
dynamics in the country, and Liberia's reliance on
extractive industries as a primary source of revenue. The
analysis also builds on previous economic sector work that
has looked closely at how to stimulate private sector growth
and investment, how to support small and medium-size
enterprise (SME), and how to leverage existing private
sector investment to generate deeper local markets and
create new jobs.