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By Sami Zaptia.
London, 20 April 2018:
The Faiez Serraj-led Presidency Council’s Presidential Guard could provide security for South Korean companies. The disclosure was made yesterday by the Presidential Guard during a meeting between Korean ambassador to Libya, Choi Sung-Su and the Commander of the Presidential Guard, Najmi Nakua.
The Presidential Guard is the attempt by the internationally recognized Presidency Council based in Tripoli to form a unified Libyan army loyal to and under the control of the legitimate civilian government. The Libyan National Army, based overwhelmingly in the east of Libya, is under the command of Khalifa Hafter and recognized by the Tobruk-based House of Representatives.
The meeting followed on from a meeting by ambassador Choi Sung-Su with Deputy head of the Presidency Council last Monday, Ahmed Maetig. At the meeting, it was noted that Korean engineers had already prepared reports with a view to resuming work this summer. The possibility of the reopening the Korean embassy ‘‘in the coming months’’ was also discussed.
Meanwhile, ambassador Sung-Su expressed the readiness of Korean companies to resume work in Libya ‘‘in the event of security guarantees and the right environment to complete the projects’’.
Ambassador Sung-Su added that his country looked forward to increasing the size of the projects in Libya, to include construction and housing projects and to equip schools in accordance with requirements.
Sung-Su also referred to the training programme between Korea and the Libyan Ministry of Labour to train technicians in several disciplines.
Maetig confirmed the willingness of Libya to take advantage of Korean experience in the field of e-government as needed in “customs, banks, passports, medical supplies”, and work on the dispatch of specialists for training in Korea.
It will be recalled that a number of Korean companies working in the electricity-generation sector have recently visited their project locations in Libya with a view to returning. This is not the first time that there have been discussions between Libyan authorities and the Koreans about restarting stalled projects. However, issues regarding payment and more importantly security had always been a stumbling block.
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