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By Houda Mzioudet.
Tripoli 22 December 2013:
Libya should be aiming to become part of the World Trade Organisation, a leading Islamic trade . . .[restrict]official said on the second day the Economic Diversification conference at Tripoli’s Rixos Hotel.
Houcine Rahmouni, deputy general manager of the Islamic Centre for Development of Trade said: “Libya cannot work without being part of this organisation (WTO). It has to engage itself in the system whose legislation, we all need to respect and which influences us”.
He continued: “Libya has a big opportunity whereby its economy is almost inexistent. Therefore this can be used positively to build its economy on sound bases with good infrastructure, while focusing on legislation to achieve this”.
Libya needed to focus on industrialisation, services and developing agriculture to respond to local demand and achieve self-sufficiency and be able to export. All this required high technology and quality to be able to compete in foreign markets.
Rahoumi said there also needed to be five and ten-year plans with clear executive programmes in economic as well as social and cultural fields. Using existing expertise and twinning programmes with companies in the economic sector, from neighbouring countries would also, he said, be important.
During the revolution, Rahoumi had come to Libya with Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the general secretary of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the parent body of the Islamic Centre for Development of Trade.
The organisation had organised training seminars for Libyans in Morocco focusing on international agreements and negotiations with different stakeholders to support Libya’s WTO membership .
The ICDT was set up in 1969 and is headquartered in Rabat, Morocco. The OIC has 57 member countries.
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