Liberia: Fairness Crucial for Investment
As the Annual World Economic Forum runs from May 22 to May 26 in Davos, Switzerland, Liberia’s world renowned economist sends his Annual Message to the Forum. In his Message, Professor Tipoteh declares that Fairness is crucial for investment flows.
According to Dr. Tipoteh, when there is fairness in decision-making related to investment in any economy, then investors, who are profit-oriented, are encouraged to let their investments flow into the economy engaged in fairness to investment. Economist Tipoteh is sending his Message about Fairness to the Forum that has as one of its eight themes the subject of Fair Economies.
The Tipoteh Message to the Forum is that investment remains the source of economic growth and development for any economy because it is through investment that employment, production and incomes are generated to boost the gross domestic product (GDP) of any economy. Economist Tipoteh points out that fairness by State management is indispensable for investment flows because of its role in promoting the planning of investment activities by the investors.
Professor Tipoteh indicates that when investors know that they are treated fairly, then they become interested in getting into a win-win investment strategy with the State managers and other stakeholders. When State managers do not do what they say that they will do, then investors become discouraged and do not do what they say that they will do. This is how investors said that they will put into the Liberian economy US$18 million over the period 2016 to 2020, but they put in less than USD5 million (NIC, 2021).
With State management in Liberia very reliant on the government of the United States of America (USA) for financial assistance, Dr.Tipoteh observes that the USA government has launched a series of attacks on the government of Liberia (GOL) because of its promotion of corruption. These attacks, according to Professor Tipoteh, are heard and seen in the radio and television statement of Her Excellency Linda Thomas Greenfield, US Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) and former US Ambassador to Liberia, to the effect that the prevailing corruption in Liberia has become rampant to the point of promoting poverty generation and preventing poverty alleviation, thereby indicating that corruption and democracy do not work hand-in-hand. Given the reliance of State management in Liberia on the US government, Dr. Tipoteh states emphatically that corruption in Liberia is a non-starter with respect to getting further access to US government support.
In the face of the USA government criticism of the GOL, the internationally acclaimed Economist Tipoteh maintains that the global leadership role of the US government has the main influence on the behavior of investors locally and globally. With the presence of ArcelorMittal (AML) the world's largest steel producer and mining entity in Liberia since 2005, Professor Tipoteh argues that the US government’s impression about Liberia has a principal influence on the decision-making of ArcelorMittal and other investors in Liberia.
On account of this global influence of the US government and the dependency syndrome of State management in Liberia, the element of Fairness must be installed in the GOL to encourage investors, like AML, to invest in the Liberian economy. The stalling of the USD$1 billion expansion proposal of AML by the GOL provides an opportunity for the GOL to at once reduce the criticism by the US government and raise the probability of investment flows in the Liberian economy.