Monrovia – President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Thursday held a closed door meeting with members of the legislature in the joint chambers of the Capitol Building.
Report by Henry Karmo – henrykarmo@frontpageafricaonline.com
The meeting, according to the President in her opening remarks, was to abreast lawmakers about the status of the country’s economy.
“We are pleased with this opportunity to share with you where we stand as we strive to move ahead to achieve our agenda for transformation,” Sirlaf said.
“Been here today we hope to give a little bit of more information as you proceed to your constituencies to be able to share with them what happening in the country as its regards the economy.”
She commended members of the legislature for what she called the continuous cooperation between the legislature and the executive, and thanked the lawmakers for accepting a request from the Executive to share with it the status of the Agenda for Transformation and government’s reminding development priorities.
For his part, the Speaker of the House of Representatives committed the Legislature to working delicately in implementing its constitutional responsibilities of Lawmaking, oversight and representation.
Speaker Emmanuel Nuquay spoke briefly when he welcomed the Liberian President to a presidential Cabinet and legislature Retreat in the Joint Chamber of the Liberian legislature.
The Vice President, Speaker, President Pro-Tempore, Members of the Legislature and Cabinet Ministers attended the two hours long discussion.
Members of the Cabinet also gave updates on the national economy, security, Agriculture and Infra-structure.
Other areas were Education, Health, Gender and Labor .The Presentations were followed by general discussion amongst the participants.
The Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Boimah Kamara made presentation during the meeting. He said there is a global slowdown in economic activities and warned that the country needs to add value to its products, “Because Ebola impact slowdown sale of rubbers and iron ore”.
Sources attending the meeting said the finance minister told the gathering: “All sectors in our country have declined; we need to shift to agriculture for more job creation. We need to shift to the private sector and protect infant industries. We need manufacturing industries.
“There is a declined in the number of vessels coming into Liberia.”
Continued Kamara: “The economy slowdown has caused declined in taxes collected on international trade for the first quarters; we could not generate like 20-25 million. So multiply it by 4 quarters is like 80 million lost Liberia Agriculture transformation agenda is the new plan of the executive. Roads and energies are necessary and need more legislative support.”
According to a FrontPage Africa source, another presentation by Central Bank Governor Milton Weeks stressed the need to focus on the monitoring policy to manage infliction rate and exchange rate.
According to Weeks, there is lower foreign exchange and he warned that by 2017 infliction rate could drop placing more pressure on the exchange rate.
Our source also confided in us that Justice Minister, Fredrick Cherue called for UNMIL withdrawal because according to him, the Government of Liberia is prepared to handle security but not 100%.
Cllr. Cherue named areas for protection as movement of cash, border security, prison security, security for election issues, and crisis management like in Mittal Steal infamous riot incident in Yekepa, Nimba County.
Though Cherue claimed Liberia is prepared to take on her own security, he said the number of security forces has a challenged of salaries, operational funds, while stating that GoL is focusing on quality not quantity.