Libyan expats cast votes in historic poll

The first votes in Libya’s elections were cast in Dubai on Tuesday as expatriates turned out to select a national assembly less than a year after the collapse of the Gaddafi regime.

The polling station in the Libyan consulate in Dubai opened at 9am local time with other locations in Jordan, Germany, the UK, the US and Canada scheduled to open their doors every day until July 7, when the elections are set to be held in Libya itself.

Burhaneddin Muntasser, regional manager for an Swiss-based IT company who lived through the war in Tripoli, was overcome with emotion after casting his vote.

“I want a Muslim country, with a free economy, where the Libyan citizens come first,” said the 48-year-old, tears streaming down his face. “I am hopeful of a good future for Libya, but I am not 100 per cent confident.”

The 200-member national assembly will select a prime minister, draft laws and appoint a committee to write a new constitution.

A steady stream from the 3,000 Libyan residents of the United Arab Emirates were ushered through an air-conditioned tent at the consulate for their first elections in half a century, leaving with a purple ink print on their index fingers to prove they had already voted.

Aref al-Nayed, the outgoing Libyan ambassador to the UAE, said the historic day was imbued with a sense of “sad joy.”

“There is joy at reaching this stage in the long struggle of the Libyan people, but sadness from the great sacrifices of the people who made this possible,” he said.

Mr Nayed, who will return to the private sector after representing Libya in the UAE since the revolution that overthrew Colonel Muammer al-Gaddafi last autumn, said he was optimistic that the elections would install a representative government and produce a constitution reflecting the desires of all Libyans.

Fears have grown that the elections could be affected by outbreaks of violence as armed militias that helped ousted the former regime compete for power.

On Sunday, armed groups demanding more autonomy for the east burned election materials and damaged computers in the eastern capital of Benghazi. But Mr Nayed said the following day the people of Benghazi had taken to the streets to pledge their support for the electoral process.

“This is a self correcting revolution, I am always assured by the ability of the Libyan people to protect and correct the situation,” he said.

Awwab Abdul, a 23-year-old oil trader, was born in the US and lived in Dubai for 13 years, but, despite only living briefly in Libya, he was one of the first to turn out to vote at 9am.

“Over the next year, Libya will emerge as a special new capital of the world,” he said. “For us, freedom is the most important thing.”

Source: Financial Times

Dubai Chamber eyes Libyan trade opportunities

The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry will lead a trade mission to Libya before year-end to assess investment opportunities, a senior Dubai Chamber official has said.

Speaking to Gulf News on the sidelines of the Libya Development Forum, Atiq Juma Naseeb, senior director of Commercial Services Sector at the Dubai Chamber, said: “Libya has strong potential for our members and the mission would serve as a platform to acquaint Dubai business professionals with the Libyan market.”

The delegate is made up of Dubai prominent businessmen and SME operators from different sectors, he said.

“The dramatic change in Libya marks a new era and the chance for foreign partners to assist in the rebuilding of a nation is required. Thus, Dubai is looking to drive investment in the country and aid our local businesses in penetrating and showcasing their products and expertise to their target markets.”

Officials from the UAE, and Dubai in particular, have made several instructive visits to Libya to examine how they can play an active role in the country’s development vision.

“As banking, construction, tourism and telecommunication are presenting major opportunities for investment, Dubai is well placed to assist since it has significant expertise in these sectors,” he said.

“One major opportunity for trade is going to come from Libya’s reconstruction efforts, with demand for rebar, cement, wood, iron and steel as well as technical expertise set to increase. Dubai has a strong industrial manufacturing base and excellent export and logistics facilities, so is ideal to meeting this increased need.”

Trade volume

“One area of investment that has significant potential and which Dubai has a major advantage is trade. Dubai’s trade with Libya has increased steadily since an end to international sanctions in 2005. Then Dubai’s exports to Libya valued Dh2.8 billion and imports Dh0.3 billion, but moving forward to 2010, Dubai’s exports [stood at] Dh3.5 billion and imports [at] Dh4.1 billion. “

Last year, Dubai’s non-oil trade with Libya reached Dh2.13 billion between January and October — a slight decline due to the impact of political unrest.

However, Naseeb added that the unrest had not proved to be as damaging as first anticipated.

“Dubai’s main imports from Libya are precious stones, which account for almost 96 per cent of the total. Meanwhile, Dubai’s exports are much more diversified, with electrical equipment, machinery and vehicles making up around 70 per cent and the remaining 30 per cent made up with categories that account for less than 2 per cent each,” he said.

Source: Gulf News

Betting On Libya's Future

The demise of Gaddifi has unleashed a treasure trove of opportunity, but one that’s fraught with risk.

By Robert Bailey

The demise of the Libyan dictatorship has thawed long frozen relations with the Gulf that could lead to wide-scale investment in a country whose political idiosyncrasies for decades denied it viable links to the region and the global economy.

An estimated $200 billion of investment opportunities will emerge over the next ten years according to the French Business Council, which recently took a large group of company representatives to Libya. They and others from countries that supported the overthrow of the regime are anxious to capitalise on the goodwill that has been generated.

In Dubai, a Libya Strategic Investment Forum was organised by the Chamber of Commerce recently, it also supported a Libya Infrastructure and Rebuild conference in the emirate.

The big question is whether the timing is ripe for these initiatives. Even though the National Transitional Council (NTC) is proposing a $54 billion budget in addition to an un-quantified emergency budget for 2012 it has little or no ability to enter into long-term contracts simply because it is an interim government.

Nevertheless observers believe that with its significant energy resources that have still to be exploited, and a potential to become an important aviation and logistics hub between Africa, the Middle East and Europe, Libya has the potential to rapidly expand its economic base.

However, there is a growing sense of unease at the slow progress in establishing any firm central authority. Recently there have been calls for eastern Libya to break away from Tripoli and there is concern is that Libya may face years of instability.

Until a functioning national army and police force is formed the existence of armed, tribally and community-based militias represent a threat to stability.

Members of the militia in Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, for example, still hold Saif al-Islam Qaddafi prisoner in spite of demands that he is handed over to the council in Tripoli.

In spite of uncertainties, work towards agreeing a constitution in mid-2012 goes on though the head of the NTC, Mustafa Abdel Jalil has stated that “if there is no security, there will be no law, no development and no elections.”

Even after such elections it may take some time before a new administration is bedded in and confident enough to award significant contracts.” The interim government in principle is unwilling to take decisions with long-term consequences, and lacks the resources to do so which is frustrating for the conduct of business,” says Oliver Miles a former British ambassador to Libya and now a director of MEC International.

SIGNS OF RECOVERY

But negatives can be overstated.

Physically the country is returning to normality. Telephone links have been reconnected between east and west and, at least, in Tripoli electricity supplies as well as water and sewerage networks are functioning.

Qatar Airways resumed flights to the Libyan capital in February. The airline had been among the first to re-open flights to Benghazi in the east. Alitalia has also restarted services to Tripoli.

Royal Jordanian is flying to Tripoli and Benghazi again as well as to Misrata. The latter has a large medical traffic carrying patients for treatment to Amman.

Emirates began flights to Tripoli again at the end of March. KLM/Air France and British Airways also resumed service. Meanwhile Turkish Airlines has launched scheduled freighter flights to Libya’s Mitiga airport, east of the capital.

Air Malta and Egyptair resumed flights to Tripoli last November and Lufthansa in February. Antonio Tassone, the German airline’s general manager in Tripoli, commented that “the resumption of our flights is a strong and important signal to Libya and the western business community that we are confident to be back.”

Progress on unfreezing assets combined with the unexpected speed with which oil production has returned to nearly three quarters the pre-revolution level, mean that the government is able more or less to pay its way are other positive indicators.

Having plunged below 100,000 barrels-a-day at the peak of fighting upstream production of crude is reported to be around 1.4 million b/d. Pre-war levels of 1.7 million b/d will be reached by the middle of 2012 predicts Christophe de Margerie CEO of France’s Total.

International oil companies with existing contracts are beginning to return. The National Oil Corporation has said that seismic surveys have resumed at concessions run by Arabian Gulf Oil Company while fresh exploration is due to begin in the Sirte basin. Italy’s Eni has resumed offshore exploration 100 kilometres offshore Tripoli.

The Libyan stock market reopened in March albeit in more modest premises on the outskirts of Tripoli. The market though had just five stocks with another eight still to provide up to date financial information.

General manager Ahmed Karoud says that five initial public offerings may come to the market this year including oil and construction companies. There are also plans to list the country’s two mobile operators.

However, optimism needs a reality check. Few are likely to commit to long- term large scale investments where there is chronic political instability particularly if property rights are difficult to enforce and where commercial infrastructure lags far behind others in the region.

GCC'S ROLE

It has been suggested that GCC investors may be more culturally adept working within the currently constrained business environment than Western companies. Whether this is true or not time will tell but there is certainly growing Gulf interest in Libya.

Arriving on Etihad’s inaugural flight to Tripoli in January and accompanied by a 100-strong business delegation, Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs declared that “right now our target is to play an important part in Libya’s rebuilding and create viable long- term partnerships.”

The Gulf states, Qatar in particular, played a prominent role in the campaign to oust Gaddafi providing combat aircraft for the NATO air mission as well as material and logistical support to the rebels.

Doha’s help extended beyond military and diplomatic support by marketing a million barrels of oil for the NTC at a crucial phase allowing the rebels to pay salaries in Benghazi.

In addition, Qatar helped launch Libya al-Ahrar in Doha to transmit television programmes and news. The UAE’s telecoms company Etisalat helped restore mobile communications services providing a satellite feed for the rebels after Tripoli cut of cellular links.

In spite of the goodwill generated by such support, Gulf as well as Western interests will be nervous about the Finance Ministry’s review of all contracts signed under the previous regime.

How far this will focus on firms from countries that failed to support the rebels internationally and go easy on those states that provided diplomatic and material military support remains to be seen.

Before the uprising Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company had lined up $10 billion of investments with the Libyan Economic and Social Development Fund for a hotel and real estate developments near Tripoli

Dubai-based Al-Ghurair Group, hopes to restart output within months on a joint venture in Libya’s largest refinery at Ras Lanuf and to almost double the present 220,000 b/d capacity over four years.

The group is also assessing openings in other sectors including contracting, civil and mechanical engineering as well as food production. According to Mashreqbank CEO Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, UAE investment could increase from $2 billion to $5 billion within five years.

In 2009, Abu Dhabi-based Oasis International Power was set to take over a planned power plant at Tripoli West to be built as Libya’s first independent power plant.

An engineering, procurement and construction contract valued at $1.4 billion was awarded to South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction.

Others are looking at new opportunities. Advisers working for Mohammed Alabbar, a Dubai businessman, chairman of real estate firm Emaar and a partner in Africa Middle East Resources (AMER), an emerging commodities supply chain company, have reportedly been assessing the viability of bauxite and other natural resources in Libya.

Abu Dhabi’s Al Maskari Holding is backing a $3 billion project to build an integrated energy hub involving solar and conventional generation to provide electricity for domestic use and export to Europe via southern Italy.

DP World has held exploratory talks with Libya’s interim officials on ideas for management of the country’s ports. Interim transport minister Yousef El Uheshi has said the sector needs billions of dollars of investment for the expansion and modernisation of ports and dredging to allow larger vessels access.

According to DP World’s chairman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem “we have always been interested in Libya and we are continuing our discussions with them.”

Conversations are likely to be extended though especially in a country where privatisation issues have yet to be tackled. “If they sort out their issues, you will see a lot of UAE companies coming in here, says Al-Ghurair,” but cautions “if it turns out to be a very slow process, they will go somewhere else.

Source: Gulf Business

Libyan Ministry of Health explores collaboration opportunities with Dubai Healthcare City

A high-ranking delegation from the Libyan Ministry of Health visited Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) to raise awareness about the status of the Libyan healthcare sector and engage in dialogue with healthcare institutions in the UAE.

Headed by the Libyan Deputy Minister of Health, His Excellency Dr Omran Turbi, the delegation comprised Dr Amal Naagi, the Ministry's Head of Medical Exhibitions, Dr Ashraf Shembesh, Director of Medical Services, and Dr Fauzia Tushani, Director of Media Relations. 

During their visit, the visiting officials hosted a seminar on 'Opportunities in the Libyan Healthcare Sector' to highlight the revolution's impact on healthcare services in the country and underline the requirements that were urgently needed for rebuilding the system. 

Dr Ayesha said: "DHCC is pleased to support the Libyan Ministry of Health. The seminar served as a strategic platform to increase cooperation between the Libyan Ministry of Health and the healthcare community in Dubai. It also helped to educate healthcare providers and professionals from the UAE and the Gulf region on the healtcare requirements in Libya."

The DHCC team led by Dr Ayesha Abdullah offered the delegation a tour of the healthcare park and provided a brief outline of the history, vision and achievements of the free zone.

Source: ameinfo.com

www.soclibya.com 

Arabtec eyeing Libya, Qatar projects

 

Arabtec Holding, the UAE's biggest builder by market value, is actively looking at oil and gas projects in Libya and hopes to win contracts in Qatar as the country prepares to host the soccer World Cup in 2022, the company's chief financial officer said on Thursday.

'Libya is a medium-term market for us on the residential side, but immediate for oil and gas. Our subsidiary Target Engineering is already looking at some projects in the sector,' Ziad Makhzoumi told Reuters on Thursday.

'Libya needs to rehabilitate its oil and gas facilities to start production again. We're looking at contracts in selected areas,' he stated.

Arabtec's entry into the North African market comes as foreign companies are gradually returning to Libya despite concerns over security and the possibility that the new authorities will review contracts signed during the rule of ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Oil major BP announced last week that it would be resuming exploration work on its concessions in Libya, home to Africa's largest proven oil reserves. Algerian state energy firm Sonatrach also said it will resume exploratory drilling in the country.

Arabtec is also setting logistics and joint ventures in place in preparation to bid for Qatar's planned $100 billion infrastructure projects ahead of the 2022 World Cup, Makhzoumi said.

'We have two major projects in Qatar and we're bidding for some more,' he said. 'We're ready to bid for almost every possible sector,' he added

Goldman Sachs estimates that Qatar will spend about $65 billion to build stadiums, roads, bridges, apartments and hotels in time for the World Cup.

Arabtec is 20.8 per cent owned by Abu Dhabi fund Aabar Investments, which owns stakes in high-profile names such as German carmaker Daimler and commodities trader Glencore and has increased its Arabtec stake from 5.3 per cent since March.

Aabar's increased stake will have a positive impact on Arabtec's operations and will translate into more contracts, Makhzoumi said: 'It is in their interest, as Aabar, that we grow in the business. I can only see positive results out of that (stake increase).'

Arabtec, which more than tripled its first-quarter net profits to Dh84.1 million ($22.90 million), expects to sign the $3 billion Abu Dhabi airport expansion project contract this month, the chief financial officer said.

'It's all done, all agreed and just a matter of finalising paperwork,' Makhzoumi told Reuters.

Last month the Abu Dhabi government identified an Arabtec consortium, including Turkey's TAV Insaat and Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company, as the preferred bidder.

'Our share is about one third of the contract, which will push our backlog to around 17 billion dirhams from the current Dh14 billion,' Makhzoumi said.-Reuters

Source: tradearabia.com

A Libyan miracle emerging from the Arab uprising

MEED’s Libya Focus Day highlights the business and project opportunities arising in the post-Gaddafi era

MEED’s remarkable Libya Focus Day in Dubai on 16 May brought together four representatives of the National Transitional Council (NTC), a heterodox group of Libyan business people, and dozens of uncertain foreigners wondering whether reconstruction in a country wrecked by four decades of dictatorial rule will ever come.

The Libyan business opportunity nevertheless has rarely looked more compelling. Oil production is expected to return next month to levels last seen before the start of the uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi’s regime. Libya can expect to earn at least $45bn from oil exports this year and its economy should return to its 2010 position. Gaddafi’s austere rejection of credit means the new regime’s got obligations, but practically no debts.

The loss of life and property during the uprising was severe and many suffered permanent injuries. But the damage done to the infrastructure was essentially superficial. As Libyans living in Libya never tire of saying, Libya in 2012 isn’t like Iraq in 2003.

Internal divisions will take longer to repair. Practically no Libyan with professional, management or business skills can escape the charge that they at least silently accepted the previous regime’s excesses. But a divide has nevertheless emerged between those that kept their heads down until Gaddafi was dead and the minority that rebelled before.

It expressed itself during the Libyan Focus Day and was voiced by Libya’s ambassador to the UAE, Aref Nayed, who warned foreign companies to steer clear of business people with links to the previous regime that were hawking themselves as middle-men now. Nayed was talking about members of the audience he was addressing.

And yet, there was little rancour in the room. Everyone lost materially, morally or spiritually under Gaddafi. All Libyans, including his closest family members, were victims.

Suleiman Al-Fortia, NTC housing and utilities committee head, said a government capital budget of about $30bn had been approved for 2012 and that more large-scale investment was planned in the years to come. This was a huge opportunity for the domestic private sector and foreign companies ready to deal with Libya in a new and better way.

But the legacy of the past is inescapable for the hundreds of western firms that were encouraged by their governments to participate in the Libyan economy in the years following Gaddafi’s renunciation of weapons of mass destruction in 2003.

Aecom’s programme director for housing and infrastructure board projects, Christopher Toomey, said his company signed up for Libya’s housing projects in 2008 and continued working on them until the US government imposed sanctions on the regime in February 2011. With sanctions lifted following the end of the uprising on 23 October 2011, Aecom has been seeking to revive its contract. It says it’s still valid and relevant. Toomey said that revisions could lift its ultimate long-term value to $100bn.

The issue for Aecom and companies in a similar position is to secure the new regime’s blessing for Gaddafi-era contracts. Al-Fortia said that more than 10,000 companies are now being reviewed by a special body empowered by the NTC to terminate those deemed to have been secured through corruption or other unfair practices.

Clyde & Co’s Adrian Creed said that it would be impossible to carry out a review of so many contracts credibly and quickly. One way round the problem is to approve contracts that are already at least 70 per cent complete. Another is for contracts with Libyan businesses, most of them worth $1m or less, to be automatically cleared.

The impact of the review is obvious to recent visitors to Libya who say that idle cranes and incomplete projects are the defining characteristic of many Libyan towns and cities.

The good news is that doing business and setting up a branch or company in Libya is possible and comparatively straightforward. Commercial laws dating as far back to the Libyan monarchy, which lasted from 1951 until 1969, are viable and enforceable, lawyers say.

The most radical views were expressed by Husni Bey, the charismatic chairman of the Husni Bey Group. Bey dismissed the National Transitional Council as redundant in light of elections to a public national conference due in June; repeated his call for the 10,000 contracts to be reactivated immediately or scrapped and called for the role of the Libyan state to be radically reduced.

NTC deputy chairman Mustafa el-Huni, a pragmatist who addressed MEED’s previous Libya conference in Dubai in 2010, was emollient. “Moderation is the main principle we shall follow,” he said. “There are some contracts and agreements that need to be reviewed, but if this will be done within the spirit of mutual co-operation. We have no intention to nationalise or do anything radical, even if they are unfair contracts.”

Not every Libyan in the room agreed. But at least they were prepared to listen. By the standards of other states divided by the dramas of the Arab uprising, that was a Libyan miracle in its own right.

Source: MEED. the article: http://www.meed.com/sectors/economy/government/a-libyan-miracle-emerging-from-the-arab-uprising/3138170.article#ixzz1v8CtFSOk

Libya currently producing nearly 1.5 mil b/d crude: NTC official

Libya is currently pumping nearly 1.5 million b/d of crude and expects to achieve "normal" pre-war production levels of 1.6 million b/d by mid-2012, Abdulbaset Abadi, a member of the oil committee at the National Transitional Council, said Wednesday.

Speaking at the MEED Libya Focus Day in Dubai, he said Libya was seeking foreign assistance to raise the country's oil production capacity to 2.2 million b/d in 2015 and 3 million b/d in 2020. The country's current production capacity is estimated at about 1.6 million b/d.

International oil companies with production sharing contracts signed with the regime of the late Libyan dictator Qadhafi that are due to expire in 2012 will get contract extensions on account of Libya's 2011 revolution, Abadi said.

Libya plans to announce the structure of new enhanced production sharing agreements to replace the Qadhafi-era contracts in 2015, he said. 

Separately, NTC deputy chairman Mustafa el-Huni said Wednesday at the same event that Libya's 2012 budget assumes crude oil production of 1.5 million b/d and exports of 1.3 million b/d.

The national budget of Libyan Dinar 68 billion ($54.38 billion) for the 2012 calendar year, approved in February, is also based on projected natural gas output of 16 billion cubic meters this year, he told delegates.

The budget includes Dinar 38 million earmarked for development spending, including investment in civil and petroleum sector infrastructure, Huni said.

The NTC projects government revenues from the petroleum sector of about $45 million in 2012. The remainder of the budget will be funded from Libyan assets that were frozen in overseas accounts during the country's 2011 revolution, he said.

Huni reaffirmed Libya's intention to honour all agreements with foreign investors signed by the Qadhafi regime.

"We have no intention to nationalize or do something radical," he said.

"Libya is in essence a moderate country that will look at implementing moderate policies." Elections for a National Congress to replace the NTC are scheduled for June. The 85 members of the NTC have pledged not to run for office in order to minimize the transitional government's influence on the election, Huni said.

Abadi said in his presentation that a number of new oil and gas discoveries in Libya in 2009 and 2010, including 24 reported in 2010, had raised the country's proven and probable reserves to an estimated 45 billion barrels of crude oil and 55 Tcf of gas.

US Geological Survey data put the potential for further Libyan oil discoveries at more than 8 billion barrels, including 4.7 billion barrels of conventional onshore crude, while undiscovered gas potential was put at more than 43 Tcf, Abadi said.

He presented an encouraging picture of the current state of Libya's oil export facilities: while the terminal at the port of Sidra had been destroyed by pro-Qadhafi forces, there were no significant operational problems at Brega, Marsa or Tobruk, and only minor damage at Ras Lanuf.

The Libyan petroleum sector's major immediate requirements were the replacement of numerous 4X4 vehicles destroyed in the recent conflict, telephone and Internet services at oil and gas facilities, security services to protect expatriate workers and workforce housing, Abadi said.

The biggest short-term bottleneck was likely to be communications infrastructure, which would take some time to extend to remote oil and gas facilities, he said.

www.soclibya.com

Source: Platts  by Tamsin Carlisle,  and edited by Jonathan Fox