Libya: Minister Speaks on 5-Year Development Plan - World News Connection, Nov 15
Tripoli -- An international conference on development and investments in Libya, gathering some 170 investment companies from all over the world, entered its second day Wednesday in Tripoli.
Organised by Libya's General Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture and the national committee for the promotion of investments, the three-day conference will evaluate development actions undertaken in Libya as well as the various investment sectors in the North African country.
Participants are also expected to discuss plans for developing Libya's potentials in tourism, agriculture, livestock and fisheries resources and ensure that local products become more competitive on the international market.
At Tuesday's working session, the conference dwelt on the role of organs charged with the responsibility of boosting investment activities.
The diversification of the country's sources of revenue, so far based on oil sales, which account for 90 percent of its foreign exchange earnings, will also be discussed at the meeting.
In a speech, the minister of Planning, Omar Mountassir, stressed the need to pay greater attention to the development of the tourism sector in Libya and to services involved in the transit trade between Europe and Africa.
He announced that the major international communications companies have been invited to participate in the implementation of major investment projects in the communications and transport sectors aimed at linking Libya to its neighbours, particularly Chad and Niger.
He blamed the embargo imposed on Libya over the Lockerbie affair and the drop in crude oil price for the stagnation of its economy in the past decade, and called for a new planning method and the formulation of a new development plan to revive it.
He added that the new plan should enable the country to adopt clear and efficient policies and measures to uplift the economy.
Mountassir suggested that the Libyan economy should henceforth operate on more realistic bases, in view of the country's limited resources derived solely on oil.
He said the country required an enormous sum for the strategic project being implemented by Libya, particularly the major artificial river project, the gas network and the railway project.
He explained that a five-year development plan (2001-2005) is being prepared for implementation of the project.
The plan focuses on the protection of the country's primary resources, particularly water and oil. It would also initiate a new strategy for improved exploitation of the resources.
The increases in oil and gas reserves as well as the diversification of foreign currency sources through the development of certain sectors and activities such as tourism and export-directed industries also form part of the new plan.
Libya's aim, within this new plan, is to foster Gross National Product (GNP) growth higher than population increase, which is among the highest in Africa, in order to concretely improve the living conditions of the people.
The projected objective is a 6.2-percent increase (outside oil revenue) per annum and the creation of new jobs throughout the country.
Mountassir said the new plan which, contrary to the preceding one, does not necessarily require enormous investments, will be managed according to a policy based on better use of assets and factors of production in addition to the relaunch of both national and foreign sectors.
The minister further called on investors to take into consideration the components of the Libyan market, its African and Arab environment as well as the country's strategic position on the banks of the Mediterranean and in the heart of Africa.
"Our plan will combine all the conditions required to attract direct foreign capital," he said. However, direct foreign investments in non-petroleum industries would be "low" during the next phase, not to exceed 2.04 percent of the investments programmed up to 2005 and estimated at 10.5 billion dinars (0.45 Dinar = 1 US dollar), he added.
In this regard, Mountassir said Libya has decided to encourage the contribution of foreign capital in the development of technological sectors and the training of personnel specialised in all the other sectors, who would in turn train other citizens. |
