By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 7 May 2014:
The Tripoli office of the international law firm, Clyde & Co held its inaugural “Breakfast Briefing” . . .[restrict]yesterday morning, which attracted a large and qualitative crowd in the business centre of the Radisson hotel.
The breakfast business briefing was moderated by Leopold Zentner (a senior corporate lawyer based in Libya) and attracted about 70 people including, Deputy Ministers, diplomats, commercial attaches, business leaders, major foreign company managers, bankers, risk analysts, as well as those operating in the oil and gas, construction and engineering sectors.
After a sumptuous hot and cold buffet breakfast Clyde and Co set the scene by reviewing the various new draft laws in the pipeline, including the oil and gas law, the Labour, Mining, Investment and Commercial laws – including the importance of PPP.
Clyde also revealed some unwritten changes in practice in application of some laws and gave a good overview of the industry segments in which Clyde & Co sees a lot of activity, revealing some unexpected sectors.
A very good debate ensued at which attendees debated the new Oil and Gas law, Islamic banking, which is due to be enforced fully by January 2015, as well as an assessment of the current risk factors in Libya.
There was also a debate about the 2014 budget and specifically whether it would contain a development and construction section – a section of the utmost importance for attendees from the construction and engineering sectors.
Ultimately, there was a strong belief that the current Qaddafi era laws needed to be reformed urgently so as to enable Libya to progress at a much faster pace.
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