Turkey’s Eximbank is to allocate some $250 million in financing loans to Libya.The news was announced by Turkey’s Economy Minister Zafer Çaglayan . . .[restrict]at a Turkey-Libya Business Forum in Tripoli on Wednesday.
“Our Libyan brothers will be able use this loan toward their investments, their purchases of machinery and other products from Turkey with a 10-year payback period,” said Caglayan. He added that if if $250 million was not enough, the Turkish government was prepared to increase the figure. The previous day Eximbank had announced t would provide Tunisia with $500 million in loans.
Libya had reopened its doors to Turkish businessmen following the revolution, Caglayan said. As part of a reinvigorated commercial relationship, health investments would be prioritized in Turkish contractors’ half-finished investments in Libya, Caglayan said. “Turkish companies will start to work by completing the construction of 20 hospitals totaling $500 million. There will be no Turkish investment that remains unfinished in Libya.”
“We are also here to support the Turkish businessmen who are impatiently waiting to invest in Libya,” Caglayan told the forum. The Turkish government wanted to ensure that Libya was at the top of the list of countries in which to invest. He noted that Libya’s economy was not only based on petrol but should also have a flourishing industrial, tourism, trade and agricultural sector.
Caglayan said he believed that in the shortest amount of time Libya would make up for its losses from the civil war tenfold. He added that, according to a study on behalf of the Turkish government, Libya had lost roughly $7.6 billion in gross domestic product for 2011.
During his visit, Caglayan was said to have held talks with Libyan officials on the progress of $400-million owed in payments to Turkish contractors in Libya. He reportedly announced that he had been told that this would now start. Libyans working for Turkish companies who had not received their salaries in recent months because of the conflict also report that they have now been paid.
Commenting on Libyan-Turkish trade relations, Libyan Deputy Economy Minister Ahmed al-Kashli confirmed all contracts would be honoured. “Our relations will continue uninterruptedly. Therefore mutual contracts should be respected first. The previous agreements [made by the Qaddafi regime] are valid.”
