By Sami Zaptia:
London, 6 March 2018:
A meeting was held in Tripoli yesterday headed by the Chief of Staff of the Faiez Serraj-led Presidency Council / Government of National Accord to review Libya’s stalled projects. The meeting included the heads of all the various Libyan project implementation agencies, including the General Projects Authority.
Libya’s last LD 142 billion (US$ 110 bn) 2008-2012 Development Plan, which consists of more than 22,000 contracts in various sectors, was reviewed and possible ways of reactivating Libya’s stalled projects were discussed at the meeting.
It was reported that a unification of views and an assessment of the status of projects was agreed in order to reach specific points upon which contracts could be reviewed and assessed. This would aid in the completion of projects based on their specific database. Projects that are to be financed by the state would be identified under the total supervision of the General Projects Authority.
It will be recalled that successive transitional governments since the 2011 revolution have reviewed and assessed Libya’s stalled projects – without any clear tangible results.
It is worth noting that yesterday’s Tripoli meeting comes on the back of a conference held in Istanbul last week to discuss stalled projects contracted to Turkish companies. A set of proposals were agreed at the heart of which lies the ability of the Libyan state to pay some of its outstanding debts to these Turkish companies.