By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 18 June 2014:
The Ministry of Housing and Utilities is receiving help from the World Bank in deciding which . . .[restrict]of Libya’s construction projects to continue with, Mohamed Abudena, the official spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing and Utilities, revealed at a press conference yesterday.
Speaking at the first ever press conference by his Ministry under acting Minister Habib Lamin, Abudena revealed that his Ministry had a specific Project Activation Department tasked with attempting to reactivate pre 2011 stalled projects.
He revealed that the World Bank had provided his Ministry with 28 criteria by which to decide whether or not to continue with a project. He did not reveal these criteria.
“We are currently collating data on the various projects. We face many challenges. On a technical level we are working with the World Bank on how to best go about activating these projects in an organized and serious manner”, he explained.
Yesterday, by pure coincidence or not, Libya Herald revealed that one of the largest stalled construction projects, the Al Ghazala InterContinental Hotel had actually resumed work.
It is not clear if the decision by the Ministry of Housing to start holding regular press conferences is anyway linked to this or if it heralds the announcement of a series of stalled projects recommencing.
Off record, Ministry of Housing employees admitted to Libya Herald that the new acting Housing Minister Habib Lamin, has a more positive view point on holding regular press conferences than his predecessor. [/restrict]
