The Italian-Libyan Chamber of Commerce is to host a bilateral Technical Round Table at its Rome UNIONCAMERE headquarters on compliance, jurisdiction and payments tomorrow. It says this comes as a first step of a joint institutional path to shared rules and common growth with the aim of facilitating the economic and financial operations of companies in the two countries.
The Italian-Libyan Chamber of Commerce says this comes as an initiative that marks the start of a structured institutional path, based on mutual collaboration and oriented to the progressive harmonization of Libya to international standards.
The initiative stems from the observation that, despite Italy being Libya’s leading trading partner, Italian and Libyan companies still encounter significant obstacles when working together: regulatory and jurisdictional uncertainty regarding contracts and protections, complexity in AML/CFT matters, KYC/KYB and international payments, customs procedures that are not always aligned, and tax and documentary requirements that increase time and costs.
The issue of payments, even small amounts, is particularly critical, as reported by all Italian companies operating in Libya: a difficulty that effectively limits export growth and ends up favouring operators from non-EU countries, who are less constrained by European regulatory frameworks.
The meeting will be attended by representatives of the main Italian administrations responsible for finance, customs, taxation and internationalisation support, alongside Libyan institutional representatives and the business community, with the aim of creating a stable technical channel between the authorities and the productive world.
Mapping operational critical issues
The Italy-Libya Technical Committee will be tasked with mapping operational critical issues (contracts, ADR, banking instruments, customs, taxation, document traceability), collecting concrete cases from businesses and proposing practical solutions, shared guidelines and more streamlined procedures to make working with Libya easier, safer and more predictable, particularly for SMEs.
Nicola Colicchi, president of the Italian-Libyan Chamber of Commerce – stressed that ‘‘This round table is an essential step in building a bilateral institutional relationship based on reciprocity. We want to establish a common path, in which both countries work together to overcome criticality and build shared rules “.
The route includes two distinct and complementary phases:
1. A first Italian internal phase, dedicated to mapping the critical issues and the definition of the technical, regulatory and operational paths on which it will be necessary to work together.
2. A second phase, in which the competent institutions in Libya will be officially involved to co-design common solutions, harmonize procedures, facilitate payments and make the systems of the two countries fully interoperable.
The entire route – from the preparatory phase and for all its development – will be conducted in the strict institutional connection with the Embassy of Italy in Tripoli and with the Embassy of Libya in Rome with a view to guarantee diplomatic continuity, political coordination and full consistency with bilateral priorities between the two countries.
“Our ultimate goal – added Colicchi – is to build a stable, predictable and shared picture, which allows Italy and Libya to grow together. A modern relationship is based on clear rules, institutions that dialogue and technical paths constructed jointly. This Round Table is the concrete start of that path “.
‘Our goal is very concrete: to make it normal for a small Italian company to sell and get paid in Libya, and for a small Libyan company to work with Italian partners. This Round Table is a necessary step in that direction. Libya is now an ideal terrain for the internationalisation of Italian SMEs: a nearby, complementary market with a great need for goods, services, technologies and skills. But without clear rules, legal certainty and functioning payment systems, it is difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to even try.’
