Le Plan in Africa

At a 1957 meeting of African political leaders, Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah chided the Ivory Coast's Felix Houphouet-Boigny for being "pro-colonialist." Retorted Houphouet-Boigny: "We will meet again in ten years, and then we will see which of us has done better for his country." They did not need to wait a decade to know the answer. Today, Nkrumah is in exile, Ghana is practically bankrupt--and the Ivory Coast is Black Africa's most flourishing young country.

French Advice. The former colony did not achieve full independence from France until 1960. Even after that, the pocket-sized nation (pop. 3,800,000) welcomed French investment, and Houphouet-Boigny relied heavily on French aid and advisers. Chief among these was Economist Raphael Saller, who executed for the Ivory Coast an economic program inspired by France's own le Plan. Blessed with nine feet of annual rainfall and a sunny six-month growing season, the Ivory Coast ranks third among the world's coffee producers, fourth in cocoa. But aware of the dangers of a one-or two-crop economy, Houphouet-Boigny and Saller sponsored land conversion programs for corn, soybeans, peanuts and pineapple.

Houphouet-Boigny shunned the showy industrial schemes dear to many other leaders of underdeveloped countries. But the government invested heavily in light industry, with new factories built to manufacture everything from bicycles to bed frames. The Ivory Coast has also achieved a tidy trade balance, with imports of $236 million and exports of $277 million last year. Per capita income for Ivorians is $200 a year, the highest in Black Africa.

American Aid. The Ivory Coast is solidly tied into France's African sphere of influence. Still, Houphouet-Boigny decided early this year on a greater display of self-sufficiency. Replacing Sailer as the Ivory Coast's top moneymen are two Africans. Mohamed Diawara, 35, a University of Paris mathematics graduate, is in charge of le Plan. And presiding as Minister of Finance and Economics is Konan Bedie, 32, a Baoule tribesman with an economics degree from France's University of Poitiers.

As the Ivory Coast's U.S. ambassador since 1961, Bedie became one of Washington's best-liked foreign diplomats. Last week on a farewell visit to Washington he proposed a reduction on Ivory Coast import tariffs in return for increased U.S. purchases of Ivorian products. He was also casting about for increased U.S. capital investment in the Ivory Coast. From a U.S. viewpoint, the generous "tax holidays" the Ivory Coast is willing to grant in return for investments make the idea attractive. But there is an Ivorian benefit too: every new U.S. investor makes Houphouet-Boigny a little more independent of his French advisers.

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