The_Open_Door_deel1

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The British and French absence in post-war Liberia is remarkable.
A very attractive investment climate did not change this. The
situation is partly to be explained - until the 1960's - by these
countries' financial and economic, as well as political,
involvement in vast areas of Africa. Thus, Investors from these
countries benefited from the political protection which the
colonial system provided. After the "wave of independence" of the
196o's this situation on the whole did not change fundamentally
as in most cases this independence had a political rather than an
economic character. Liberia's main investment and trading
partners after Nr. 1 (the U.S.A.) became, eventually, Germany and
Sweden,
This limited effectiveness of the "Open Door Policy" - designed
to attract investors from all over the world - is to a lesser
extent due to the fact that in Liberia the Door was not wide open
for foreign investors than to the fact that those for whom the
Open Door Policy was meant did not make full and optimum use of
it. It should be mentioned here, however, that the Liberian'
Government conducted a selective Open Door Policy - a
contradiction which reveals a basic policy of the elite in power
in Liberia and to some extent detracts from the sincerity of this
Government to develop the country. Simultaneously it points to
an important effect of the activities of the foreign investors
whose presence was encouraged. These investors contributed
significantly to a continuation of the position of authority of
the country's elite. Excluded by the Liberian Constitution to
become citizens of the*Republic, white investors were not able
to get involved in internal politics of the country. Black
investors of neighbouring countries, eligible for citizenship,
did have this possibility, and the Liberian Government - always
dominated by Americo-Liberians - feared of becoming an unimportant
minority in the country they and their ancestors, had created.
Such a situation would be far from Imaginary once the political
and economic power of the African triban population would be left
free to develop. This explains the discrimination of foreign black
(African, not black American) investors. President Tubman did not
allow investment incentives to be given to the numerous black
entrpeneurs from neighbouring countries. They all had to pay
import duties when importing the necessary equipment. They were
never granted tax holidays. Virtually unlimited control over large
areas was never given to them. The Tubman Administration aimed at
"the European trader" as already in 1904 President Arthur Barclay
had done. Despite the foregoing, the end of the "century of
survival" gave way to an era of "internal economic development",
a goal which already in 1870 had been cherished by Liberia's
leaders. Whereas in that period the internal struggle was won by
the advocates of a "Closed Door Policy", the supporters of an
"Open Door Policy" were more or less firmly in power in the second
half of the twentieth century, a fact which is amply illustrated
by President Tubman's remaining in power for 27 years.