Lef-Briefing Note#1 Post Ebola Macro-Economic Policy Advisory-Liberia | Page 3

Adopt domestic private sector inducement policies: The Ebola situation has created global
health panic and insecurity. The FDI driven private sector investment portfolio will slowly build
up as fleeing investors become sure of the restoration of confidence in terms of health and
security. Hence, an induced domestic private sector that demonstrates even a little gain in the
short-run will a) boost FDI driven investment confidence and hasten investors decision to
reinvest; and b) begin to create short and mid-term jobs for the already destitute unemployed.
Such policy measures include but are not limited to:
i.

Increased Government’s Consumption Spending channeled through the domestic
private sector; including the award of public procurement and contracts (stationeries,
gasoline, spare parts and lubricants, transportation services, furniture supplies, etc.) to
Liberian owned businesses. The question is, does the Government have the money to
spend in the aftermath of Ebola? To attempt to answer this question is to ask, do the
Liberian people, now poorer than their pre-ebola status; have the money to pay were
Government to adopt an increased tax regime? Government will have to introduce a
stimulus package financed either through the national budget (