AHC: Make Djibouti the "Singapore of Africa"

What is says. Make Djibouti a country with a successful economy and an authoritarian government. Bonus points if it has significant industry, is a financial centre, and/or has a largely immigrant population. More bonus points if its economy is radically free-market as well. No PoD before the end of World War 2.
 
At the end of WW2, when state planning gained popularity in Western Europe, Charles de Gaulle decides to exile a few rivals by appointing them to positions of power in French Somaliland. It turns out, these administrators had classical, almost Austrian economic views, and finally had a location to experiment with their views far from the Republic's eyes.

Tariffs are abolished, taxes are slashed, and the scope of government is reduced. The Suez Crisis is butterflied away, and remains a reliable waterway of international passage. Meanwhile, war in Eritrea causes the remaining Italian elite and the Europeanized Africans to flee to French Somaliland, taking their skills, capital, and connections. By 1966, Djibouti quietly emerges as a major transshipment hub, with large local industries dominated by Italians and backed by a strong local currency.

Still more rich and well-connected refugees flee to French Somaliland after the revolution in Ethiopia, and by now the local police (staffed entirely by francophone Africans) focus mostly on patrolling the electric fence with the outside. By 1975, a new generation of administrators had grown up, knowing nothing but laissez-faire governance and general peace. France finally grants Djibouti independence, to be governed by a semi-authoritarian clique who remains committed to a strong currency, laissez-faire economics, and the rule of law. Djibouti's stock exchange is by far the largest in East Africa, Djibouti banknotes widely circulate around the Horn of Africa, and its banks are widely considered the safest in Africa.
 
Top