INTRODUCTION-

Ivory Coast is one of the most prosperous country in the the west African states
known for its production of cocoa and its export and import. The country got its
independence in 1960. Ivory coast has good relations with France in terms of its
trade. In December 1999 the government of the Ivory coast was overthrown by a
military coup. In late 2000 Junta leader declared himself as the winner but it did
not went too long as Laurent GBAGBO came into power. In September 2002
military launched a failed coup attempt by the disaffected Ivoirians. Now, the rebel
forces came into account as they are controlling the northern half of the country.
This created a lot of rivalries and disputes between the president of GBAGBO and
rebel forces. In March 2007 President GBAGBO and former New Force rebel
leader Guillaume SORO signed the Ouagadougou Political Agreement. The
political agreement made the country to reunite and to integrate north and south.
But it has its own problem like rebel forces have to enter the armed forces; the
election period was postponed with no date from November 2009. But at last the
UN troops and the French troops helped Ivory Coast to implement their parties for
the peace process.

COUNTRY OVERVIEW

Ivory coast is a developing country with a population of 20 million. Its capital city
is Yamoussoukro .It I sthe largest economy in west Africa after Nigeria. Ivory
coast has a great economic influence as it has 40 percent of gross domestic
product(GDP) of the West African Ecnomic Monetary Unoin. Its having a very
good trade relations with the neighbouring countries and in turn having avery good
per capita income. The country is largest exporter of cocoa in the sub sharan
region. The country poverty line has increased from 10 percent in 1985 to 49
percent in 2008 in spite of having both manufacturing and service sectors to large
extent.
POLITICAL SYSTEM

Since 1983, Ivory coast official capital has been Yamoussoukro . Most of the
countries maintain thir embassies in Abidjan but now they have closed because of
the continous violence in the country.The signing of the Ouagadougou Political
Accord (OPA) in 2207 was the turning point for the country. Due to this
agreement only country selected there prime minister and president by organizing a
fair elections. They also unify the rebel forces into the military forces. According
to the constitution Natinal assembly assumes the Presidency for 45-90 days if there
is no presidents term. The cabinet is selected on the responsibility of prime
minister.

Executive Branch:

The executive is the president elected for 5 year long term. The president is the
head of the state and commander in chief of armed forces. The presiden t o f Ivory
coast is Laurent GBAGBO (since 26 october 2000 ) and Primre minister is
Guillaume SORO (since 4 April 2007 ) In this system both the prime minister and
president have equal power sto choose anyone in the cabinet.

Legislative Branch :

This branch is elected directly by the president for the 5 year term . it consists of
totally 225 members elected by both single and multi elections. It can also be
controlled by legislation. In ivory coast last time elections which were held is on
10th December which were taken into action on 14th January 2001.This elections
were postponed by the government.

Judicial Branch:

The judicial system here gives importance to the supreme court. The judicial
system also includes the individual constitution system which has been responsible
for the determination of the candidate eligibility in legislative elections, the
announcement of final election results and the constitutionality of legislation. some
of the chambers in supreme court are like : Judicial chamber, Audit chamber,
constitutional chamber, and Administrative chamber.

POLITICAL CONDITIONS:

Elections played a vital role in political conditions of Ivory coast from the year of
2000 to 2008. Coming from the starting if we see we can observe that Gen. Guei
had taken the power in December 1995 following a defeat against Henri Konan
.Laurent gbagbo became president in october 2000 . On March 4, 2007, President
Gbagbo and Guillaume Soro, leader of the rebel forces known as the New Forces,
signed the Ouagadougou Political Agreement (OPA). Some of the problems in the
elections of 2000 had also been observed and this is basically realted to the section
608. This issue is very helpful for the future progress if the country. The p[olitical
system in Ivory coast is president dominated . The prime minister concentrates on
the agreement .

Ivory coast since 1990, haa been declared as a violent and dislocated country. All
the opposition parties, independent newspapers all are considered as legal at that
time. President Gbagbo has promised less executive interference in the judicial
system, but it still lacks basic strength and independence.

POLITICAL PARTIES :

In Ivory coast legislature has always given independence. All the legislatures are
taken care by PDCI till 1990. Following the legislative by-elections in January
2001, 223 of the 225 seats of the National Assembly were filled. The FPI held 96
seats, the PDCI 94 seats, the PIT 4 seats, very small parties 2 seats, independent
candidates 22 seats, and the RDR--in spite of its boycott of the legislative
elections--5 seats.

The FPI party is the oldest opposition party. It I sstrongest in the regions of
President Laurent Gbagbo. The PDCI core region may be described as the terrain
of the Baoule ethnic group in the country's center and east, home of both
Houphouet-Boigny and Bedie. The RDR is now strongest in the mostly Muslim
north.
The FPI and RDR boycotted the presidential election of October 1995 because of
Ouattara's disqualification and the absence of an independent electoral
commission. Their boycott produced a certain amount of violence and hundreds of
arrests. These grievances remained unresolved, leading to the 1999 coup and 2002
rebellion.

ECNOMIC ENVIRONMENT :

Ecnomic environment plays an important role in understanding anin development

of a country. The impact of crisis plays an important role in the economic
development of ivory coast. The average GDP of the country in 2008 is around
$1700. Here the GDP per capita has been fallen down to 15% in this year. The
annual growth is around 2.5% and the inflation rate is 6.1%. As we know it is the
most rapidly growing country in the western Africa , it has a large number of
industries or sectors like Agriculture, Industry and Services.
Agricultural Products include coffee, cocoa beans, bananas, palm kernels, corn,
rice, sugar, cotton, rubber, timber. Industries include foodstuffs, beverages, wood
products, oil refining, truck and bus assembly, textiles, fertilizer, building
materials, electricity. Government’s macroeconomic performance since mid-2007
has been broadly satisfactory despite the adverse effects of the food and oil price
increases in 2008 and of the global economic slowdown in 2008 and 2009.

The major trading patners of ivory coast are The European union, Nigeria,
China and US. Ivory coast ecnomy is mainly based on its exports like cash crops,
cocoa and coffee. In cocoa sector the GDP I saround 40% ad the exports revenue
are around 60%. There are about 650000 farmers working in the cocoa sector. So
we can see that they have expanded a large in the agriculture market.

So here the GDP has fallen down around of 0.7% from 2009 to 2010,
before coming it to 4.8% in 2011-14 and an economic slow down occurs. But that
time only growth stated to come from the private sectors like that from the cocoa
industries, infrastructure, energy, financial sectors.so we can say that the growth is
mainly possible because of large investments, going to global market raher than the
domestic market, and using diversified ecnomy. The consumer price index has to
reaming in between 2.5-3 from the year 2010-14.
A new investment in the ivory coast ecnomy is in the oil sector. Ouput from these
oil sectors have been reduced recently although they have laid the pipelines in
November 2007 . The country remains important to the regional economy, as
migrant labourers from the Sahelian states of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger send
significant remittances home.

TRADE WITH IVORY COAST:

Ivory coast is a country with a lot of trade realtions especially with france, UK etc.
This country basically depends on its exports rather than its imports. THE exports
of this country mainly constitutes of cocoa, coffee, timber etc. nad this exports in
turn will increase the economic growth to large extent. Other exports which are
growing nowdays are like : canned fish, natural rubber, bananas, and other fruits.

Trade (expressed in billions of US$): Côte d'Ivoire

Exports Imports

1975 1.181 1.127

1980 3.135 2.967

1985 3.198 1.749

1990 3.072 2.098

1995 3.645 2.945

1998 N/A N/A

SOURCE : International Monetary Fund. International Financial Statistics Yearbook 1999.

The exports from Ivory coast mainly goes to the countries in the European union
and also to the sub Saharan African countries and west Africa. Trade with African
countries is increasing and represented 28 percent of total trade in 1998, and the
government is eager to promote closer trade links with the 8-member Francophone
Union (UEMOA), of which Côte d'Ivoire is a member. Not only there are exports
to Europe and Africa , exports to asia have also increased significantly. Around 15
percent of the total exports are also given to asia.

So the main countries which are there in trade with Ivory coast are like : France
(15 percent), United States (8 percent), Netherlands (7 percent), and Germany and
Italy (both at 6 percent)

Imports are mainly food, consumer goods , heavy machinery, transport equipment,
and fuel. Imports mainly comes from France (26 percent), Nigeria (10 percent),
China (7 percent), Italy (5 percent), and Germany (4 percent).

FOREIGN INVESTMENT :

These investments are basically in the form of codes i.e. the investment codes.
These codes are the codes in which all the businesses had to lend some of their
profits to the government for the further development of the country. This type of
foreign investments first started in 1959 when there are the French companies. All
these are used in the form of tax holidays, duty free imports etc. In 1984 a special
code was implemented for small and medium sized enterprises.

Ivory cioast also has a investements from world class standards like paris club and
HIPC(highly indebted poor countries) . These all provide an attractive foreign
investments in petroleum, telecommunications , mining sectors etc.

Annual foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow fell over 43% between 1997 and
2000-2001—from about $450 million in 1997 to an average of about $256 million
in 2000 and 2001. The political disturbances has created uncertainty in the private
sector, which due to recent privatizations has delayed planned infrastructure
improvements in the railroads, the petroleum sector, telecommunications, and
electricity and water supply.

The source of FDI firms are basically from countries like France, US UK. The
French have it around 55-60% , while dat of the ivorions are around 45-50%. Other
important sources of FDI include the United States (8.4% in 1997), United
Kingdom (7.3%), and Benelux countries (4.6%) .

BANKING :

There are about 15 commercial banks in ivory coast which includes HSBC equator
bank, Bank of Africa, citi bank, BOCICI, BIAO,SIB,BHCI,Ecobank,etc. The
headquarters of African Developmental bank is in Abidjan. In 1996 there was a
growth forecasted by BOCICI and these are further used in the household savings.

Some of the other banks which were created in order to help the agriculture
development and to help the small scale industries are The Ivoirian Industrial
Development Bank was inaugurated in 1965 and The National Agricultural
Development Bank, created in 1968.

The International Monetary Fund reports that in 2001, currency and demand
deposits—an aggregate commonly known as M1—were equal to $1.8 billion. In
that same year, M2—an aggregate equal to M1 plus savings deposits, small time
deposits, and money market mutual funds—was $2.5 billion. There is also another
term like money market rate , it is the financial institutions lend to each other and
the percentage is around 4.95. The Abidjan stock exchange is also started in 1976
to encourage the domestic market and small scale industries in ivory coast.

TAXATION :

Every country has its own taxation system, Ivory coast also has its own taxation
system. This taxation system is introduced in the year 2001. This taxation is mainly
introduced so that the state government can get some revenue from here. For eg:
5% is the custom duty tax on all the imports.

There are different types of taxes both for the industries as well as for the working
class people. The industry one ias divided into 5 categories like commercial
profits, salaries and wages, marketable securities, land, and non-commercial
profitsand the individuals tax has been pai according to the General Income Tax.
The main indirect form of getting the tax is VAT. This VAT tax is not applied for
ships, aircrafts etc.There is atax on automobiles also around (50-100%)

Some of the other taxes are like:

Taxation of Capital Gains in Cote d'Ivoire: Long-term capital gains tax is included
in the corporate tax in Ivory Coast.

Cote d'Ivoire Social Security Contributions: 15.6%

Cote d'Ivoire Payroll Tax: 2.8%

Property Tax (developed land): 15%

Property Tax (undeveloped land): 1.5%

Cote d'Ivoire Advertising Tax: 3%

Withholding Tax on Dividends: 10/12/18%

Withholding Tax on Interests: 18%

Withholding Tax on Royalties: 20%

Those goods and services are exempt from Value Added Tax in Cote d'Ivoire:
Water and electricity, food base, medical and pharmaceutical, banking services and
insurance, a few international trade, fertilizers, pesticides, operations and the
feeding stuffs and animal of domestic goods.

Tax year which applied there in Ivory coast is the same calendar year.

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT :
Ivory coast has a huge resources of cocoa, coffee, timber etc. This country has a
large business in the global market for its natural resources.but we have think that
the business environment mainly depends on the economical and political situation
of the country. They both are quite opposite to each other and therefore sometime
it makes it difficult to start a business over there. On the one hand, the market
potential of Ivory coast is one of the largest economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, has
a business infrastructure superior to many other countries in the region, and has
been an industrial and transportation hub of the region. On the other hand, Ivory
coast remains in a political/military crisis that has lowered the economy and
investor confidence to start a business in Ivory coast.

CORRUPTION:

One of the most other important problem in starting a new business here is its
corruption in both of its public and private sectors. In western Africa Ivory coast is
one of the largest producer of cocoa. This corruption in Ivory coast came into
account since the French colonies are residing there. And nowadays also a large
number of people depend on the cocoa industry for their employment. So we can
estimate that a large amount of money has been put in this industry but the wages
are not correctly provided to the employees. This in term we can say that there is a
financial crisis in the public sectors while those small scale industries i.e. the
privates sectors are increasing day by day. Nad on this the President also started an
anti corruption campaign. This corruption is also done in the agricultural sector.
The Ivory Coast is ranked 151 of 180 nations in Transparency International’s 2008
Corruption perception index. There are laws that provide for criminal penalties for
Corruption but they are not effectively enforced.

GLOBAL COMPETITVENESS REPORT:

Each year, the World Ecnomic Forum produces an annual global competitiveness
report with the objective of evaluating the economic competitiveness of the
countries. Through GCI we can accesses some of the pillars like : institutions,
infrastructure, macro economic stability, health and primary education, higher
education, goods market efficiency, financial market sophistication, technological
readiness, innovation.

Some these which are going to be discussed are ;

INFRASTRUCTURE:

The infrastructure of this country is good in its own terms. It has all the three
modes of transport needed for the development of country.

There are 31 airports in this country. The main international airport is Port Bouet
Airport, also known as Felix Houphouet Boigny International Airport . The
airlines which are mainly are Afriqiyah Airways, Air Algerie, Air Burkina, Air
France, Air Mali, Benin Golf Air, Brussels Airlines, Emirates, Ethiopia Airlines,
Kenya Airways, Royal Air Maroc, South African Airways Tunis Air and Virgin
Nigeria.

The railway consists of a state-controlled 660 km section of a 1,146 km narrow

gauge track that runs into Burkina Faso. The governments of the Ivory Coast and
Burkina Faso however still retain ownership of the rolling stock and infrastructure
and maintain responsibility for major investments. The railroad requires extensive
modernization.

The port of Abidjan is the main port of Ivory coast. The port serves as the import
and export terminal for several countries like mali. Niger etc. Recently the
government announced that it will spend around 30 billions to convert the port into
regional trade hub and transport hub. By converting it like that it can accommodate
large containers of more volumes than its exisisting.

TECHNOLOGY:
Ivory coast is a developing country so we can say that its technology is also
increasing to an extent. There are around 14 main telephone lines and cellular
phones are also coming into use extensively. Internet is also coming into use.
There are around 23 per 1000 people using internet over there.The usage of
television sets, radios, motor veichles etc has also increased to a great level. The
per capita consumption of electricity is 224 killo watts per hour. The Ivory Coast
is ranked 111 of 134 in the WEF’s 2008-2009 Network Readiness Index.

HEALTH :

In the WHO’s ranking of the world’s health care systems, the Ivory Coast is ranked
137 of 190 countries surveyed. As Ivory coast is western African country and its
started developing now, we can say that the medical amenities over there are not
too good and accurate to cure everything. The occurrence of HIV/AIDS is 3.9% of
the adult population (15-49 years old). In 2007, there were 480,000 people living
with AIDS of which 250,000 were women 15 and over and 52,000 were children
Between the ages of 0 and 14. The occurrence of tuberculosis is 582 per 100,000
people. The occurrence of diabetes is 2.3% of the population, the occurrence of
obesity is 0.2% for males and 5.4% for females, the occurrence of smoking is a
Smoking is 2.4% In 2006, there were 7,028,990 cases of malaria and 19,557
deaths from malaria. The per capita health expenditure in 2006 was just $63. The
death rate for cancer is 160 per 100,000 people and the death rate for
cardiovascular diseases is 436 per 100000 people.

EDUCATION :

As Ivory coast is poor country many of the children did not attended the schools
and started to be in the military forces. Primary education is not necessary and the
tution fees is also fee till the age of 13. There is an insufficient space in the
secondary school for the students who wanted to attend the school as a result
entrance examinations are used to restrict the children. Pupil student ratio is 1:42.
Primary education starts at 6 and continues for 6 years.
The average literacy rate for Sub Saharan afric ais around 625 and the literacy rate
here is 46% . The net enrollment rate in primary school is 49% for girls and 66%
for boys. This compares to a regional average of 71% for girls and 76% for boys.
The ratio of primary school age children who are not in primary school is 44%.The
survival rate to grade 5 is 45%. The primary to secondary school transition ratio is
48%. The net enrollment rate in secondary school is 14% for girls and 25% for
boys, which compares to the regional average of 24% for girls and 29% for boys.
The gross enrollment for tertiary school is 8%.