Speaker Seeks Reform In Forestry, Mining Sectors

House Speaker, Bhofal Chambers, is calling on his colleagues in the House of Representatives to make laws that could ensure reforms in the forest sector. Speaker Chambers made efforts in explaining his point during programs marking the opening of the 3rd Session of the 54th Legislature yesterday on Capitol Hill when he called his colleagues’ attention to the urgent need for critical reforms in the laws managing the forest.
According to him, laws that are antiquated and unhelpful to the State must be amended or repealed to suit the best model adding, “In the forest sector, there is almost zero growth. Sadly, increased conflicts within, amongst and between clans, communities, families, neighbors, friends and even counties are so rampant. There are inter and intra-community conflicts. Lessons could be learned from the German model.”
Comparing Liberia with other developed countries particularly Germany, Chambers asserted that Germany generates from annual sales of its forest or wood product about 170 billion Euros and that the market sector employs nearly 1.2 million Germans. He explained how a study last updated on April 25, 2017 on the German wood sector was done by Oishimaya Sen. Nag, a writer/editor and she is an Indian native, currently residing in Kolkata.
“It is an open secret that the minerals being extracted from the soil do not provide the required benefit to the State. The State needs to adopt a new practical or radical rethinking. The State, through us, as representatives of the people, itself must look into running or managing some goldmines and use the contents as bullion to support the Liberian currency,” Chambers said.
He added, “Bullion is gold, silver, or other precious metals in the form of bars, ingots, or specialized coins that is said to maintain its value more than conventional currencies and is therefore kept as a form of emergency currency by governments and sometimes private individuals.”
Chambers said laws in the sector need to be changed to suit the economic reality to ensure mutual benefit for investors and the State citing Botswana as a classic case in terms of the fairness in the mining industry. See full speech on page (8)