The Ivory Coast and Uganda

Abstract

country of 322 thousand square kilometers, and inhabited by 16 million people, the Ivory Coast is considered the ‘economic lung’ of West Africa, with a GDP of 16.3 billion dollars in 2005. Nonetheless, social unrest and the instability of the international commodity market made the country’s annual growth rate fall from 7% in the 1990’s to 2% (Anonymous, 2006). The Ivory Coast’s prosperity is based primarily on agriculture, which accounts for 35% of the GDP, 70% of the export earnings, and 66% of the employment positions (Anonymous, 1997a). Major agricultural products are coffee, cocoa (40% of the world’s production), palm-kernel oil, cotton, rubber, banana, pineapple, and mango. The offshore reserves of oil and natural gas are also important assets for the national economy.