Côte D'ivoire Mali 1996-97

COUNTRY PROFILE Côte d’Ivoire Mali Our quarterly Country Report on Côte d’Ivoire and Mali analyses current trends. This annual Country Profile provides background political and economic information. 1996-97 The Economist Intelligence Unit 15 Regent Street, London SW1Y 4LR United Kingdom The Economist Intelligence Unit The Economist Intelligence Unit is a specialist publisher serving companies establishing and managing operations across national borders. For over 40 years it has been a source of information on business developments, economic and political trends, government regulations and corporate practice worldwide. The EIU delivers its information in four ways: through subscription products ranging from newsletters to annual reference works; through specific research reports, whether for general release or for particular clients; through electronic publishing; and by organising conferences and roundtables. The firm is a member of The Economist Group. London New York Hong Kong The Economist Intelligence Unit The Economist Intelligence Unit The Economist Intelligence Unit 15 Regent Street The Economist Building 25/F, Dah Sing Financial Centre London 111 West 57th Street 108 Gloucester Road SW1Y 4LR New York Wanchai United Kingdom NY 10019, USA Hong Kong Tel: (44.171) 830 1000 Tel: (1.212) 554 0600 Tel: (852) 2802 7288 Fax: (44.171) 499 9767 Fax: (1.212) 586 1181/2 Fax: (852) 2802 7638 Electronic delivery EIU Electronic Publishing New York: Lou Celi or Lisa Hennessey Tel: (1.212) 554 0600 Fax: (1.212) 586 0248 London: Moya Veitch Tel: (44.171) 830 1007 Fax: (44.171) 830 1023 This publication is available on the following electronic and other media: Online databases CD-ROM Microfilm FT Profile (UK) Knight-Ridder Information World Microfilms Publications (UK) Tel: (44.171) 825 8000 Inc (USA) Tel: (44.171) 266 2202 DIALOG (USA) SilverPlatter (USA) University Microfilms Inc (USA) Tel: (1.415) 254 7000 Tel: (1.800) 521 0600 LEXIS-NEXIS (USA) Tel: (1.800) 227 4908 Copyright © 1996 The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited. All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited. All information in this report is verified to the best of the author’s and the publisher’s ability. However, the EIU does not accept responsibility for any loss arising from reliance on it. ISSN 1351-0576 Symbols for tables “n/a” means not available; “–” means not applicable Printed and distributed by Redhouse Press Ltd, Unit 151, Dartford Trade Park, Dartford, Kent DA1 1QB, UK 1 October 18, 1996 Contents Côte d’Ivoire 3 Basic data 4 Political background 4 Historical background 7 Constitution and institutions 7 Political forces 9 International relations and defence 10 The economy 10 Economic structure 11 Economic policy 13 Economic performance 15 Regional trends 15 Resources 15 Population 16 Education 16 Health 17 Economic infrastructure 17 Transport and communications 18 Energy provision 19 Financial services 20 Other services 20 Production 20 Industry 21 Mining 22 Agriculture and forestry 24 The external sector 24 Merchandise trade 25 Invisibles and the current account 26 Capital flows and foreign debt 27 Foreign reserves and the exchange rate 28 Appendices 28 Regional organisations 28 Sources of information 29 Reference tables EIU Country Profile 1996-97 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 1996 2 Mali 37 Basic data 38 Political background 38 Historical background 43 Constitution and institutions 43 Political forces 45 International relations and defence 46 The economy 46 Economic structure 48 Economic policy 49 Economic performance 50 Regional trends 52 Resources 52 Population 53 Education 53 Health 54 Natural resources and the environment 55 Economic infrastructure 55 Transport and communications 56 Energy provision 57 Financial services 57 Other services 58 Production 58 Industry 58 Mining and semi-processing 60 Agriculture, forestry and fishing 63 Construction 63 The external sector 63 Merchandise trade 65 Invisibles and the current account 66 Capital flows and foreign debt 67 Foreign reserves and the exchange rate 68 Appendices 68 Regional organisations 73 Sources of information 75 Reference tables EIU Country Profile 1996-97 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 1996 Côte d’Ivoire: Basic data 3 Côte d’Ivoire Basic data Land area 322,463 sq km Population 14.7 million (UN estimate, mid-1996) Main towns Population in ’000 (1990 national estimates) Abidjan 2,500a Man-Danane 450 Bouaké 220 Yamoussoukro 120 Daloa 80 a 1991 estimate. Climate Tropical Weather in Abidjan Hottest months, February-April, 24-32°C (average daily minimum and (altitude 20 metres) maximum); coldest month, August, 22-28°C; driest month, January, 41 mm average rainfall; wettest month, June, 495 mm average rainfall Languages French, Baoulé and other local languages Measures Metric system Currency CFA franc=100 centimes. CFAfr1:FFr0.01. Average exchange rate in 1995, CFAfr499.2:$1. Exchange rate in mid-October 1996, CFAfr521:$1 Time GMT Public holidays January 1, May 1, November 1, December 7, 25, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, Eid el Fitr, Tabaski EIU Country Profile 1996-97 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 1996 4 Côte d’Ivoire: Historical background Political background Historical background A peaceful transition to Dense tropical forest, thinly populated, stretched inland from the Atlantic for independence hundreds of kilometres in pre-colonial times, making the territory of present- day Côte d’Ivoire inhospitable to the seaborne European traders active along the Guinean coast from the mid-17th century. The forest peoples lived in generally stateless communities, and there was little by way of European interest in the interior before the mid-19th century. The area of present-day northern Côte d’Ivoire, largely savannah, and Muslim, historically fell under the tutelage of the Guinean kingdoms which exerted periodic control over much of modern Mali, Guinea and Niger. French military penetration gathered pace after 1893 when the colony of Côte d’Ivoire was officially established, but local resistance to France’s rule did not die down until around 1914. It was with the building of a railway through Côte d’Ivoire into present-day Burkina Faso that the country’s rich agricultural and forestry resources came to be realised, and by the late 1940s Côte d’Ivoire had replaced Senegal as France’s richest colony in the region, accounting for almost half the export revenue of French West Africa. The principal figures in pre-independence politics in the subregion were Léopold Sédar Senghor, the socialist leader and eventual president of Senegal, and his contemporary in Côte d’Ivoire, the sophisticated francophile Félix Houphouët-Boigny, a trained medical assistant and a successful cocoa farmer who led a farmers’ union. Mr Senghor favoured the creation of an independent French-speaking federation of West Africa, while Mr Houphouët-Boigny wanted Côte d’Ivoire to become fully independent, arguing that, under a fed- eral system, it would end up subsidising the poorer states. Mr Senghor boycotted the Bamako conference of 1946 which established the subregion’s leading pro-independence party, the Rassemblement démocratique africain (RDA), on the grounds that it would be dominated by communists. Instead, the conference elected the moderate left-of-centre Mr Houphouët- Boigny to lead the RDA. The Parti démocratique de Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI), also sometimes known as the PDCI-RDA, which was to maintain close links with the RDA, had been formed six months earlier by Mr Houphouët-Boigny while he was a deputy in the Assemblée nationale (parliament) in Paris. Like Mr Senghor, Mr Houphouët-Boigny was to hold cabinet posts in a succession of post-war French governments, and he was instrumental in drawing up the Loi cadre of 1956 under which the West African colonies received a measure of internal self-government. The Loi cadre put an end to dreams of a French Union, which General Charles de Gaulle subsequently tried to replace with his idea of a French Community. Côte d’Ivoire became independent on August 7, 1960, with Mr Houphouët-Boigny as the president. Emergence of the By making the most of his carefully cultivated personal relations with successive Houphouëtiste state French presidents and governments, as much as through skilful economic and political management, Mr Houphouët-Boigny (or le vieux, as he was known) was to dominate the country’s life for nearly four decades, until his death in EIU Country Profile 1996-97 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 1996 Côte d’Ivoire: Historical background 5 December 1993. A benign and dignified father-figure but also an astute politi- cian, le vieux presided over Côte d’Ivoire’s emergence in the 1960s and 1970s as one of Africa’s most prosperous and well-managed states, although he was occa- sionally attacked for allowing France to perpetuate its influence. He built up PDCI party structures which came to permeate all aspects of political and economic life, at national and local levels, and there was remarkably little dissent and a noteworthy degree of national contentment at a time when many of newly independent Africa’s bright hopes were being shattered by political upheaval and ethnic strife. A ruling coterie of Houphouët loyalists, the “PDCI barons”, emerged, who were predominantly francophile Roman Catholics and often, although by no means exclusively, from the president’s Baoulé community in central Côte d’Ivoire. The president endeavoured to ensure that none of the country’s 60 or so “micro” ethnic groups was seen to dominate, and remarkably little organised protest was along ethnic or religious lines. An important factor for stability during the first two decades of independence was national prosperity resulting from Côte d’Ivoire’s success as an exporter of cocoa, coffee, timber and tropical fruits.

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