Sierra Leone seeks aid and investment from UK mission

Sierra Leone's new president will seek more aid and investment from leading donor Britain this week to speed post-war reconstruction, the West African country's finance minister said.

President Ernest Bai Koroma is due to meet Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday before courting British investors at a special forum in London the following day.

"We are expecting an increase in British support and this is the right time to make the case because the budget ends in March," Finance Minister David Carew said in a telephone interview before leaving for Britain at the weekend.

Sierra Leone was devastated by a 1990s civil war fuelled by its diamond riches and characterised by drugged child soldiers and rebels who hacked off civilians' limbs, lips and ears.

Today the government depends on foreign donors for more than a third of its budget. Former colonial ruler Britain sent troops to help end the fighting and rebuild the country's army. Last year it gave 40 million pounds, including up to 15 million direct to state coffers.

Ministers for trade, defence and foreign affairs will travel with Koroma, meeting other government officials as well as Britain's Prince Charles, who visited Sierra Leone in 2005.

Koroma was elected last year on a promise of change in a country ranked bottom of the U.N. Human Development Index.

Widespread dissatisfaction with rampant corruption, high unemployment and appalling water, power and road services have impeded progress since the 11-year war ended in 2002.

Carew, a former partner at accountants KPMG, said a business focus was crucial, and the delegation would try to drum up investment in tourism, mining, agriculture and fisheries at Tuesday's forum, backed by the Commonwealth Business Council.

"We are keen to tell them that aid is not the way to go forever," he said. He hoped the forum would boost interest in an investor conference due to take place in late 2008 in Freetown.

Sierra Leone boasts miles of pristine beach, rich deposits of diamonds, gold, rutile, bauxite, iron ore and other minerals, and plentiful fish stocks off its shores.

Carew said the government would seek investors to privatise companies like the 51-percent state-owned Rokel Commercial Bank and the fully state-owned Sierra Leone Commercial Bank.

He said telecoms operator Sierratel and the airports and ground services authorities were also slated for privatisation.

Last year's largely peaceful polls, the first since the 2005 departure of what was once the world's biggest U.N. peacekeeping force, should reassure investors, he said.