Liberia launches major investment drive
Liberia has launched a major investment drive to rebuild its economy, create jobs and to economically empower its people after it gained political stability from a more than a decade of civil war.
Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has, therefore, invited sister West African countries to come and invest in Liberia as way of promoting business and economic co-operation within the sub-region.
Addressing a Liberia-Ghana Investment Forum in Accra as part of the itinerary of a two-day state visit to Ghana, President Sirleaf said Liberia was ready to do business with Ghana, and partner her for trade and investment to build a better and more prosperous future.
She was optimistic of the revival of the sectors of her country’s economy which became a victim of the horrendous civil war that plagued the country in the recent past.
The Forum announced investment opportunities in the agriculture sector, forestry, housing, medical, and hospitality, entertainment, banking and insurance, and transportation and railway sectors, among others.
The Liberian Leader commended President John Atta Mills for efforts to reactivate the Joint Ghana-Liberia Commission to promote trade and investment between the two countries.
She recalled the need expressed at the just-ended ECOWAS Summit to do more to expand intra sub-regional trade, and said West African nations could do better to increase their investments.
President Sirleaf expressed gratitude for the development assistance so far received from Ghana in the areas of maintenance of peace, security, agriculture and the provision of electricity to the city of Monrovia by the Volta River Authority, after it had been in darkness for more than 14 years.
With a strong conviction of the resilience of the Liberian people, President Sirleaf said Liberians were ready for a better future to restore broken hopes for prosperity.
She expressed her personal commitment for the development of small and medium scale enterprises, which said were the engine of economic growth.
President Sirleaf also appealed for investment in human capacity development and invited the Empretec Ghana Foundation for assistance.
Liberia is pursuing reforms in its commercial laws to attract more foreign investors.
Source: GNA