Only 950,000 of 1.6 million inhabitants are citizens, giving Equatorial Guinea the largest ratio of expatriates to residents in Africa.

The discovery of large oil reserves in 1996 and their subsequent exploitation have contributed to a dramatic increase in government revenue.

Although pre-independence Equatorial Guinea counted on cocoa production for hard currency earnings, the neglect of the rural economy under successive regimes has diminished potential for agriculture-led growth.

[citation needed] A number of aid programs sponsored by the World Bank and the IMF have been cut off since 1993 because of corruption and mismanagement.

No longer eligible for concessional financing because of large oil revenues, the government has been unsuccessfully trying to agree on a "shadow" fiscal management program with the World Bank and IMF.

Undeveloped natural resources include titanium, iron ore, manganese, uranium, and alluvial gold (Mining in Equatorial Guinea).

[citation needed] Oil and gas exports have increased substantially and will drive the economy for years to come.

[11] There is ongoing additional development of existing commercially viable oil and gas deposits as well as new exploration in other offshore concessions.

[11] Equatorial Guinea has other largely unexploited human and natural resources, including a tropical climate, fertile soils, rich expanses of water, deepwater ports, and an untapped, if unskilled, source of labor.

[11] Timber production increased steadily during the 1990s; wood exports reached a record 789,000 cubic meters in 1999 as demand in Asia (mainly China) gathered pace after the 1998 economic crisis.

Environmentalists fear that exploitation at this level is unsustainable and point out to the permanent damage already inflicted on the forestry reserves on Bioko.

[11] It is attempting to create a more favourable investment climate, and its investment code contains numerous incentives for job creation, training, promotion of non-traditional exports, support of development projects and indigenous capital participation, freedom for repatriation of profits, exemption from certain taxes and capital, and other benefits.

[11] The government seeks to expand the role of free enterprise and to promote foreign investment but has had little success in creating an atmosphere conducive to investor interest.

[11] The Equato-Guinean budget has grown enormously in the past 3 years as royalties and taxes on foreign company oil and gas production have provided new resources to a once poor government.

[11] The Equato-Guinean Government has undertaken a number of reforms since 1991 to reduce its predominant role in the economy and promote private sector development.

[11] Equatorial Guinea's balance-of-payments situation has improved substantially since the mid-1990s because of new oil and gas production and favorable world energy prices.

[11] Equatorial Guinea in the 1980s and 1990s received foreign assistance from numerous bilateral and multilateral donors, including European countries, the United States, and the World Bank.

[11] In 1999, the Equato-Guinean Government began attempting to meet IMF-imposed requirements, maintaining contact with IMF and the World Bank representatives.

[11] The African Development Bank is helping to improve the paved roads from Malabo to Luba and Riaba; the Chinese are undertaking a project to link Mongomo to Bata on the mainland, and the European Union is financing an inter-states road network linking Equatorial Guinea to Cameroon and Gabon.

[11] Electricity is available in Equatorial Guinea's larger towns thanks to three small overworked hydropower facilities and a number of aged generators.

In Malabo, the American company, CMS-Nomeco, built a 10 megawatt electricity plant financed by the government, which came in line in mid-2000, and plans to double capacity are advancing.

[11] Parastatal Getesa, a joint venture with a minority ownership stake held by a French subsidiary of Orange, provides telephone service in the major cities.

[11] Equatorial Guinea has two of the deepest Atlantic seaports of the region, including the main business and commercial port city of Bata.

[11] The British company, Incat, has an ongoing project with the government to renovate and expand Luba, the country's third-largest port which is located on Bioko Island.

[11] The government hopes Luba will become a major transportation hub for offshore oil and gas companies operating in the Gulf of Guinea.

[citation needed] It is a project mainly supposed to service the oil industry, but can also relieve the congested Malabo Port due to its closeness.

[11] In late 1999 Triton Energy, a U.S. independent, discovered La Ceiba in block G in an entirely new area offshore the mainland of the country.

[11] Triton expected a U.S.$200m development program to enable La Ceiba and associated fields to produce 100,000 barrels per day (16,000 m3/d) by late 2001, despite disappointments and technical problems at the beginning of the year.

[11] In early 2001 the government announced plans to establish a national oil company, to allow Equatorial Guinea to take a greater stake in the sector and to facilitate the more rapid transfer of skills.

[11] However, critics fear that such a company may become a vehicle for opaque accounting and inertia of the sort that has hindered development in neighbouring countries including Angola, Cameroon, and Nigeria.