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By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 17 December 2013:
The 12th Arab Structural Engineering Conference opened yesterday evening at the Dat Il Imad Conference Centre . . .[restrict]in Tripoli.
The three day conference organised by the Civil Engineering Department of the Engineering Faculty of the University of Tripoli, is sponsored by the Ministries of Housing and Infrastructure and Planning.
In his opening remarks, Minister of Planning, Almehdi Agnaia said that Libya’s “main aim was to move to an era of economic development with competitiveness. We are determined to activate the stalled projects”, he emphasized and to implement regional development projects as well PPPs.
The Planning Minister explained that projects worth over LD 100 million were being assessed and that some projects such as the airport and soon, the railways were being activated.
He also explained that the 2030 Vision Committee made up of 50 people was working on long term plans and that it will be presenting its findings soon
Agnaia revealed that there were over 6,000 projects in Libya at a value of LD 140 billion.
In concluding, Agnaia said that the right environment had to be created for Libyan engineers so that they are able to fully participate in the development of Libya.
The Deputy Minister of Housing and Infrastructure, Farhat Farhat, filling in for his absent Minister, said that the holding of this conference confirms that “Libya is in the right direction for development and building and that the February 17th Revolution wants to pursue sustainable development”.
Farhat said that his Ministry had prepared short term plans for 2013-14 for nearly completed projects. He revealed that there are over 900,000 housing units in Libya of varying quality and some of which were of very poor quality.
He admitted that the current security situation has meant that many international companies had refused to return to Libya to resume their stalled projects. He also admitted that there are demands for both compensation and price reviews by foreign companies, which have contributed to the stalling of projects.
The conference will continue until Wednesday with a programme of presentations from participants from Libya, Canada, USA, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Australia, and includes an exhibition booths by about 30 companies and institutions.
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