Mining and fishery sectors contain sales opportunities - Mauritania

Business America, March 30, 1987 by John R. Crown, II

Mining and Fishery Sectors Contain Sales Opportunities Mauritania's economy has been marked by 15 years of uneven development and major financial imbalances due to war, drought, falling commodity prices, and economic mismanagement. However, since the Taya regime took power in December 1984, Mauritania has undertaken a comprehensive adjustment effort to eliminate the internal and external imbalances created during teh 1970s and early 1980s. The country has negotiated an IMF stand-by arrangement and rescheduled its officially held debt. Additionally, the Mauritanian government has produced a realistic economic recovery plan that was accepted by donors in November 1985 as the economic blueprint for the period 1986 to 1989.

Until recently, minin had been the dominant economic sector, supplying up to 80 percent of foreign exchange earnings. The state-owned enterprise SNIM (the National Industrial and Mining Company), which runs the mining oerations, has just contracted to provide a U.S. steel giant with 650,000 tons of iron ore this year, and is in the final stages of negotiating the purchase of more U.S.-built locomotives and replacement engines for its railway.

Excellent potential exists for sales of conveyors and mining explosives, sales of which have heretofore come principally from Europe and Japan. There will also be potential sales in the copper mining industry, and possibly in a small-scale phosphate factory that would process fertilizers for local use.

The most rapidly expandin g sector of the Mauritanian economy is fisheries. American boat construction companies should pursue potential opportunities as the fishing companies expand or replenish their fleets in a market traditionally supplied from Europe.

For further information on Mauritania, call the desk officer at (202) 377-4564.