allAfrica.com: Liberia: 'Tremendous Potential', Says Investment Commission Chairman (Page 1 of 3)

Since Liberian President William R. Tolbert was assassinated in 1980 by junior military officers, the country has been in turmoil, with rival armed factions competing for power. During the 14 years before an internationally enforced ceasefire in 2003, over half of Liberia's three million people were displaced by marauding gunmen who raped, killed, pillaged and bombed their way through the country.

Now Richard Tolbert, the Harvard-educated nephew of the former president and the son of an executed Cabinet minister, has the job of attracting foreign investors to help rebuild the economy. He returned to Liberia in January, after 25 years in exile in the United States, where he was an international banker at Merrill Lynch and senior vice-president at Payne Webber and the global financial firm UBS. Shortly after President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf named him as a senior economic advisor and head of the National Investment Commission, AllAfrica's Reed Kramer and Tamela Hultman spent a day traveling with him to the site of a demolished iron-ore complex, where Liberian entrepreneurs, with international partners, are developing several enterprises. Tolbert talked about the challenges he faces.

Your job is persuading investors to come to Liberia. Why would a high-performing, high-earning financial asset manager leave New York for a $69-dollar-a-month job asking people to invest in a ruined country?

I've always wanted to come back. Anyone who knows me well knows that I've never wanted to settle in the United States. I've been there 25 years, and I still have a Liberian passport; I don't have an American passport. In my family, we were raised with a sense of duty to your country. I feel it would be a great dishonor to them for me not to come back. I finally feel that there is good leadership, and I believe that there is tremendous potential for the country.

What do you tell potential investors? What is the argument for investing in Liberia?

The argument is that everything is open for re-doing - complete reconstruction. Obviously, in the last 25 years there has been complete disruption, infrastructure has been destroyed, but for those that are looking for an opportunity, a business opportunity, you can come and get in at ground zero right now. The upside is far, far in excess of the downside. Of course everybody knows about tremendous natural resources, which have hardly been touched. And the human resources are great. With proper management and proper leadership, there is a lot to be done. I'm going to try to make the process smooth for investors by making it easier for them to go through the red tape, which turns off so many foreign investors. But there is tremendous potential here. Tremendous potential.

The National Investment Commission has been working under the transitional government since 2003, but there have been widespread complaints of corruption and incompetence throughout that administration. Do you pretty much have to start from square one?

Absolutely. I've been in already and sat with the staff and talked to them and asked for brochures. The last one they have is 15 years old! So we're going to update the investment guide, information on the tax structure, the general policy framework for foreign investment. I've already told them I want to start listing the sectors of the economy that investors should be looking at and do basic pre-feasibility studies on some of the areas that we want foreign investors to come into. We'll use modern means of communication, particularly the Internet, which is very cost-effective. We'll update things on DVDs. We'll get out there and do road shows, and accompany the president when she's traveling, to tell the world that Liberia is open for business.

Is the Commission's focus on foreign investment exclusively or on a mixture of foreign and domestic investment?

The primary focus is providing a central point for attracting foreign investment, where investors can get information about the country - policies, guidelines, procedures - and then put in their applications for various businesses. That's the central focus, but it's not exclusive. If there are local investors who are trying to put up a major investment and are seeking government incentives, they come to the National Investment Commission.

You've said the lack of infrastructure here is a problem, but also an opportunity, because there is so much to rebuild. Beyond that, what do you see as the greatest challenge Liberia faces in attracting foreign investment?

If there is a perception that we're not unified, as Liberians, it will be very difficult to attract any serious interest in the county. I don't see a potential for the kind of wars we've had, but foreign investment is very wary and does not want to take major political risks. We have got good leadership now, and as long as people feel that we've turned the corner and been able to get away from this ridiculous internecine struggle that we've had for the last 25 years, we'll all benefit. Because I think that there's goodwill out there for the country, and there's tremendous goodwill for the leadership. That can translate into real resources.

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