Dear Editor,
Despite the political upheaval we see in the Ivory Coast Republic (RCI) today there is much that Guyana can learn in economics and in practical politics from this much maligned West African country. In this letter I shall deal only with the economic example the RCI has set.
Your SN editorial, ‘Laurent Gbagbo’s charade’ of March 1, informs us that the Ivory Coast is best known for two reasons, the first being that it is the world’s largest exporter of cocoa. Dare I say this is a gross understatement. The Ivory Coast is best known for what even its critics describe as the ‘Ivorian Miracle.’ Furthermore, the RCI is also the world’s largest exporter of pineapples. Trust me, viewing an Ivorian pineapple plantation from the roadside is similar to viewing the Atlantic Ocean from the seawall in all its vastness and awesomeness.
Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the country’s first President after independence in 1960, made agriculture the backbone of the country’s economy. His investment focus was not just on growing the fruit for export but also on value-added production in the Ivory Coast itself. To achieve this end he systematically encouraged real partnerships between major foreign manufacturers, end users, international distributors and his Ivorian private sector. He introduced and developed structures that saw these investments through to fruition and prosperity. He saw to it that the intermediate state agencies as well as the banking system linked young businesses with their private sector owners ever ready to provide advice, technical assistance, soft loans or strategic investment. Pineapple satellite farms not only produced raw material for local agri-processors, but were part of the manufacturing complex as equity partners along with foreign owners and third party Ivorian entrepreneurs. In fact consecutive five-year plans promoted greater Ivorian participation in business and put in place workable structures to achieve this objective which Guyana can well study and learn from.
Under Félix Houphouët-Boigny the Ivory Coast prospered economically. This success, uncommon in impoverished Africa, became known as the ‘Ivorian Miracle’ and was due to sound economic planning and the systematic, rapid development of the country’s agriculture base.
In the mid 1980s the Ivory Coast had a population of a mere 8 million people and a growth rate of 5.8%. Now, some 20 years on, it boasts a population of over 20 million as mentioned in your editorial. Naturally this statistic includes several million migrant workers from less prosperous and less well managed African countries. Most of these guest workers were/are employed in agriculture and helped the RCI become the food basket of West and Central Africa in a few years.
The lesson that Guyana can learn from the Ivory Coast is not just in serious agricultural development but also in diversification. During the Houphouët-Boigny years the RCI successfully diversified into palm oil, bananas, cotton, sugar, rubber and yes, pineapples and eventually tourism as well. Traditionally it was strong in coffee, cocoa and timber just as Guyana is/was in sugar, rice and bauxite. But the RCI moved on.
With diversification RCI recorded over 6% real annual growth in GDP for 10 consecutive years, dropping to 5.2% in 1979 but bouncing back to 7% in 1980.
It is to be believed that the RCI’s basic economic facilities are excellent by Third World standards. A country the size of New Mexico or one-and-a-half times the size of Guyana, its transport system is generally adequate, relying heavily on extensive road networks linking all parts of the country. This infrastructure enabled easy movement and connection of the factors of agricultural production. A railroad runs 500 miles through the Ivory Coast linking the port of Abidjan, its commercial capital, with Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso in sub-Saharan Africa. The system of communications is also good with a functional telephone service from Abidjan to interior cities and important centres of agriculture. Government and privately owned radio and telephone networks have played their roles in the rapid development of agriculture, food processing, the agri-business in general and in their diversification programme. Guyana has a lot to learn from the Ivory Coast.
Yours faithfully,
F Hamley Case
