The_Open_Door_deel1

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(distribution) of educational, technical and vocational training
facilities.
The Transfer of Technology and the Industrial and/or
Technological Co-operation Between the Foreign Investors
and the Host Country
In Liberia there is no question of industrial and/or
technological co-operation between the multinational corporations
and other foreign investors operating in the country and the
Government and/or Liberian entrepeneurs. The Liberian political
elite had realized that its capacity to exploit the country's
potential was insufficient but the content of the concession
agreements granted to foreign investors who had the financial
means and the technical capability of such an exploitation
clearly prove:
First, that it had never been the intention of the Government to
gradually take over the exploitation of the country's natural
resources as most agreements were granted for extremely long
periods, generally varying from 60 to 99 years: 80 years (L.M.C.
and N.I.O.C.) and 70 years (L.A.M.C.O.-J.V., B.M.C. and
L.I.S.C.O.) in case of the iron ore mining companies, and 99
years (Firestone), 80 years (The Liberia Company, B.F. Goodrich),
and 70 years (Salala Rubber Company, L.A.C.) in case of some of
the plantation companies, to mention the country's most
important investments;
Secondly, that it had never been the intention of the Government
to increasingly participate side by side with the foreign
investors in the management and exploitation of these natural
resources: until 1973 the training of Liberians was generally
not provided for in the concession agreements whereas in those -
exceptional - cases that some kind of training of Liberians had
been included in the agreements signed between foreign investor
and the Government the latter never took any action to enforce
this obligation,,
The concession agreements with two of the four big iron ore
mining companies did not provide for the training of employees
or the education of their children (L.M.C. and N.I.O.C).
The LAMCO J.V. was officially obliged (1) to provide free
primary and secondary school education for the dependents of
employees and of some local government officials, and (2) to
.provide on the job training, to operate vocational training
centers, and to provide scholarships (see the reviewed agreement
of 1974, in Annex 14). The same applies to the Bong Mining
Company. These two companies form the only two notable
exceptions to the preceding general statement of the companies'
obligations and behaviour with respect to manpower training and
development. As one Liberian author stated, the LAMCO Joint
Venture's training programme constituted the largest as well as