Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-26-Speech-2-087"
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"en.20060926.12.2-087"2
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".
Mr President, honourable Members, it is with a deep sense of gratitude that I and my delegation join you today on the occasion of your formal sitting. On behalf of the Government and people of Liberia I extend warm greetings and felicitations to you, honourable Members, and through you, to your respective governments and peoples. I am honoured by the opportunity to make a few remarks.
We must quickly consolidate the potential dividends of Liberia’s hard-won peace and arrest the economic and financial haemorrhaging. We must respond to the deep wounds of the civil war, and enhance national governance, while quickly introducing new measures of structural reform. We must base our approach on the core principles of democracy, accountability, free enterprise, good governance, respect for human rights, and equitable distribution of our natural resources.
So with everything said and done, what must we do first? Poverty reduction strategies are at the core of both averting a return to conflict and establishing the foundation for sustained development. We are basing our strategy on four pillars of reconstruction and development.
The first pillar is enhancing security and consolidating peace in our country. Without peace and security there can be no development or prosperity. We must redouble our efforts to train our forces, not just in security matters but also in being accountable to the people. Our security forces over the years have been quite corrupt and largely dysfunctional. They have lacked the trust of the population and have been used to terrorise the population and to intervene in political processes without respect for due process or law. We want to change that. We must develop a clear national strategy that will take into account the gradual withdrawal of UN peace-keeping forces.
We have already started the process. We have completed the deactivation of members of our armed forces and are well on the way in recruiting a new army comprising 2000 soldiers to be adequately trained and well equipped. With the strong help of UN agencies and other partners, we have facilitated the return of 70 000 refugees and 50 000 internally displaced persons since the inauguration. Our police force and other security units are being restructured and trained. It is important that we find the means to resettle them in productive endeavours.
Second, we need to revitalise our economy. We need to focus strongly on agriculture, both in food and cash crops with emphasis on the rehabilitation of our traditional rubber industry. We also expect rapid growth in our forestry, mining and other natural resource-based industry, based upon policies that aim at creating an investment climate that will encourage investment in activities in which Liberia can compete internationally. These activities will create jobs to tackle the 80% unemployment which we face, particularly among our youth.
Towards this end, we cancelled all non-compliant forestry concession agreements and are in the midst of establishing a new concessions framework for our natural resource products, to ensure the strong growth of these sectors. We have taken an aggressive stance in collecting revenue owed to the government, and already revenues have jumped by over 20%. We have reached agreement with the International Monetary Fund on a Staff Monitoring Programme, and by all accounts our performance to date has been strong. We are concluding our Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy which articulates priority interventions over the period July 2006 through December 2007. This builds upon our 150 day Action Plan under which 70% of our desired results were achieved.
The third element of our vision is improving democratic governance. The over-concentration of power and a closed political system bred corruption, restricted access to the decision-making processes, limited the space for civil society participation in the processes of governance, and fuelled ethnic and class animosities and rivalries over time. We are working through statutory and policy changes to revise these constraints on democracy and development.
We are determined to fight corruption, which has eaten away the fabric of our nationhood and society. We are well along the way to developing a strong anti-corruption strategy and a supporting legal and regulatory framework. Our weak judicial system is under reform and being strengthened. We are working towards decentralising decision-making and allocating appropriate resources to county and municipal governments to support their own identified programmes and projects. We are placing emphasis on empowering the people, especially the poor and vulnerable, to become participants in the development process.
The fourth and final pillar of our agenda is revitalising our social and physical infrastructure. Education is central to renewal and reconciliation. Our vision of education for all – young and old – demands that we enforce the policy of full universal primary education and introduce literacy programmes in communities throughout the country with our resilient market women as key targets.
It has been barely eight months since the full responsibility of rebuilding post-conflict Liberia was passed over to us, following our victory during the democratically held 2005 elections. We accepted the responsibility fully aware of the magnitude of the challenges that our country faces after 14 years of civil war and destruction. The damage and negative consequences have been enormous, deepening the state of poverty throughout the country. Today, GDP per capita at USD 163 (2005) represents a 90% decline as compared with the pre-1980s pre-war levels due to sanctions and cutbacks in activities in productive sectors such as agriculture, forestry and mining.
We recognise that no nation can develop under conditions of a 70% illiteracy rate. We must respond particularly to our war-affected youth, providing them with opportunities for school and skills training programmes.
We must also rehabilitate health facilities that have been partially or completely destroyed. Only 10% of our population today has access to healthcare. This must increase to at least 50% within the medium term. We must confront the growing HIV/AIDS problem, and fight malaria, parasites, malnutrition and other diseases that kill so many of our children.
Our roads are in a terrible state. Without a decent road network it will be nearly impossible to consolidate security, encourage new economic activity and strengthen local governance. We must also improve other social infrastructure, such as water and sanitation facilities. In what we consider one of our most important achievements, in July of this year we were able to turn on electricity and water to parts of our capital city, Monrovia, for the first time in 15 years.
We are proud that we were able to achieve in six months what previous governments had failed to do over so many years. We should like to thank the European Union through the European Commission for all they have done to support us in these first beginnings. But that accomplishment is just a beginning.
Our mission is to make the Liberian Government work again and be more responsive in delivering quality services to the Liberian people. The associated challenges are so daunting and the needs and expectations of our people so massive that our Government cannot satisfactorily respond by itself. There is a critical need for forging and building strong strategic partnerships. To this end, let me use this opportunity to express our deep appreciation for the continued assistance we have received over the years from the European Community collectively as well as from individual Member States.
The Government and people of Liberia appreciate this concerted support and we are keen to harness it for the recovery, reconstruction and development of our country. We take interest in the ongoing reforms within European Union development assistance to African nations, as well as the new European consensus on development towards poverty eradication. It is our desire to work with our colleagues to conclude the ongoing Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations, bearing in mind the need to arrive at a consensus on bringing into an equitable balance the development imperatives usually derived from such partnership agreements. Furthermore, the anticipated European Development Day celebration will no doubt enhance the content and results of your partnership with our countries. We welcome this innovative initiative and look forward to its good results.
In summary, we are off to a good start. For that we are grateful to the Liberian people and to the international community, including the European Union and the European Commission, which are key partners in this regard. It is just a start. In the next few months, we will be engaged in serious planning for our Partnership Conference, which is to take place in the first quarter of next year, and in developing our medium-term poverty reduction and growth strategy. We will continue our strong start in the budgetary process and adopt appropriate fiscal regulations with the GEMAP framework.
Exports declined similarly by over 95% for the same period. Our huge external debt estimated at USD 3.7 billion represents 800% of GDP and 3000% of export earnings while domestic debt and non-salary arrears are estimated at USD 700 million. Our budget, just passed recently, at USD 129 million, although increased by over 50% from the previous fiscal year still accounts for less than 30% compared with two decades ago.
But it is critical that in the next few months Liberians begin to see steady, tangible progress. I would like to ask all our partners to work closely with us in the next few weeks so that we can make sure that the many activities that need to be implemented during the upcoming dry season are ready to go on time. We cannot afford to waste any time, and in many projects we need to speed the process of disbursement and implementation. We specifically ask for your support for this objective through the European Commission.
I also want to make sure that we do not face gaps in critical support during the transition between our emergency programmes winding down and longer-term development programmes getting started. In too many countries, this transition does not go smoothly and critical momentum can be lost.
Finally, I want to make sure that the efforts of Government and partners are fully synchronised and harmonised. To best prepare for the Partners Conference, we need to make sure that partners are supporting the most important initiatives, that there is not undue overlap and duplication, and that together with both strong planning and rapid and effective implementation we can be assured that we will take advantage of this critical moment in Liberia’s history to put the conflict to rest and speed the process of reconstruction and development.
We are glad that our nation has been blessed. Liberia is not a poor country, but a country that has been poorly managed. We are committed to change that; to pursue those goals that will move us from the crisis of the past to the opportunity of the present. We are committed, as a people, to build a new Liberia from the ashes of an old turbulent past to a future of hope and promise. We are committed to strategic partnerships based upon mutuality of respect and benefits. We thank you all, collectively and bilaterally, for the support provided so far. We thank you, President Borrell Fontelles, for the opportunity of being here and we look forward to working with each and every one of your countries in the coming months and into the future. Thank you.
When we took office there was no electricity and no water. Schools and clinics had crumbled, roads were impassable. Institutions of governance had completely collapsed and corruption was rampant. HIV/Aids rates had soared. Few children were in school and many were dying of curable diseases. Today, well over three-quarters of our people live below the poverty line of USD 1 per day. An overwhelming majority of those people, mainly the youth, are either unemployed or employed in the informal sector.
Yet, I am pleased to tell you, Liberians are resilient people. For even after everything they have endured, the people of Liberia have faith in new beginnings. They are counting on me and our administration to create the conditions that will guarantee the realisation of their dreams.
Their dreams are not complicated. They just want the simple things that most people take for granted: to live their lives in peace, get a good education and to be able to provide for their families. Those things are not too much for Liberians to dream about.
But time is pressing. As you all know, the risks of regression to war in post-conflict societies is high when the government and the international community are not able to make strong efforts at key moments and sustain them over time.
Liberia today is at one of those key moments. Our efforts, joined by those of our partners over the next few months, the next year and beyond, will determine the future course of our nation. If we wait too long to introduce the policy changes and reforms that are needed, or if our international partners wait too long to ramp up its support, then we may lose the best chance Liberia has had in a generation to end the conflict permanently and build the foundations for growth and prosperity. We cannot afford to let that happen."@en1
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"Ellen Johnson Sirleaf,"1
"President of the Republic of Liberia"1
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