The Chargé d’Affaires of the Indonesian Embassy in Tripoli, Didi Ahmed Al-Rifai, confirmed during an exclusive interview with Libya Herald that his embassy in Tripoli will start issuing visas for all diplomatic, private and ordinary passports this December. He explained that the necessary technical equipment has been prepared to accept applications for obtaining Indonesian visas for Libyan citizens.
Called on Libyans to visit Indonesia
The Chargé d’Affaires called on Libyans to visit Indonesia for tourism, treatment, education and trade, considering that his country has many advantages in many fields, making it a distinguished destination for those wishing to visit attractive tourist sites in several Indonesian cities. He said Libyan visitors can enjoy health treatment and shopping centres, as well as the presence of many high-quality industries, especially furniture and clothing of international brands and foodstuffs that are in line with Libyan taste.
2023 Indonesian exports at US$ 100 million
Regarding the volume of Indonesian trade with Libya, Al-Rifai said that the volume of Indonesian exports to Libya increased in 2023 to approximately 100 million dollars compared to general imports. Most Indonesian imports to Libya are a variety of foodstuffs. He expected the volume of trade with Libya to increase, especially after the opening of travel visas directly from the embassy in Tripoli, with more diversity of Indonesian imports to Libya.
University cooperation
Al-Rifai stressed the embassy’s keenness to link Libyan universities with several internationally ranked Indonesian universities for cooperation in the fields of graduate studies, scientific research, and joint scientific conferences and seminars. He said this will have a good impact on creating permanent communication between the universities of the two countries and lead to the development of scientific research and education in many fields. The Chargé d’Affaires highlighted the presence of hundreds of Libyan graduate students in Indonesian universities, and in return the presence of dozens of Indonesian students in Libyan universities.
Health cooperation
Al-Rifai pointed out that there are great prospects for health cooperation between Libya and Indonesia, especially since his country is one of the top twenty manufacturing countries in the world in the field of health and the manufacture of medicines with well-known international brands. Additionally, Indonesia has medical personnel with high skills and extensive experience in the field of allocating and treating diseases who can work in Libya to contribute to raising the efficiency of Libyan hospitals, especially those located in remote areas, which rely heavily in providing service on expatriate medical and paramedical personnel.
MEDCO
It is worth noting that the Indonesian oil company Medco Energy International won concession 47 in the Ghadames Basin in the first EPSA in 2008, which is linked to a partnership with the Libyan Investment Authority. The company’s oil discovery was supposed to begin development work on production facilities there. It consists of 26 wells, with an investment of 800 million dollars, and a production capacity of 50,000 barrels per day. The project was scheduled to be completed in 2017, but due to the security problems and political divisions that Libya is experiencing, the completion of the implementation of this project was delayed.
