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By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 5 March 2013:
A Chinese delegation arrived today, Tuesday, in Tripoli to discuss the resumption of work by Chinese . . .[restrict]companies in Libya.
Headed by the Chinese Trade Ministry’s Vice-President of the West Asian and North Africa Department, Li Xiaobing, it will also seek assurances on compensation for loses suffered by Chinese companies during the revolution and the increased costs of construction in the two years since it started.
According to Xiaobing, who is to meet with Libyan Housing and Utilities Minister Ali Al-Sharif, both sides have agreed to study and assess Chinese losses.
Shareef, however, says that Libya rejects compensation as a main demand in resuming work in Libya.
“We are in a process of forming a committee to assess and limit the Chinese companies’ direct damages”, Shareef said, indicating that both sides want to reach a mutually satisfactory settlement and get work started again, hopefully by the middle of 2013.
“We may offer new projects for them to participate in as compensation for the damages. That’s what will happen generally with most foreign companies seeking to resume work in Libya.”
Until now, Libya has rejected any notion of paying foreign companies compensation as the price for resuming contracts.
For his part, Li Xaiobing said that the Chinese delegation hoped to exchange ideas with Libya about the commercial and economic cooperation between the two countries.
He added that such cooperation was an important part of the bilateral relations that had been developed over past years.
Trade between Libyan and China, he said, was worth $8.7 billion in 2012, an increase of 215 percent over the presvious year.
China imported 7.3 million tons of oil before the revolution, he added, and this rate was now again at the same level, Xaiobing said, stating that Libya was the second African largest oil supplier to China. [/restrict]
