Foreign Direct Investment: Level of FDI in Libya

Eng. G.I. Guider, Chairman of the Privatization and Investment Board (PIB), discusses the level of FDI in Libya and type of FDI Libya is planning to attract.

Guider agrees that there is a lot of interest and negotiations from Turkish investors and from the Arab Gulf countries and also from some countries in Europe such as Italy and the UK. There are Turkish investors already here in Tripoli doing business and another Turkish investor in Benghazi.

“After the revolution we have to make sure we are stable and safe, I think everything is going well and that by the end of this year safety will have improved a lot in comparison to during Gaddafi’s time,” adds Guider.

In terms of foreign direct investment, Libya has been able to attract in excess of US$ 6 billion between 2020-2010. Guider remains optimistic about future prospects for the FDI: “I think a lot of investors couldn’t trust the government in this country before. In my opinion this is the main thing that has changed. This government and the next will be democratic; it will not be like Gaddafi’s government. This situation will encourage people to invest in Libya; this is my opinion. If we save this country and give the investors the real information to help them invest in Libya, they will come. Especially as we have plentiful resources here for example we have oil to start a petrochemical industry.”

“The Ministry of Industry is going to begin making a road map for the petrochemical industry, the Ministry of Tourism is renewing their master plan for investment and all these committees will join together. The Ministry of Industry does an excellent job, the Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy is putting together a new master plan for investment in this field. All these master plans should be finished by the end of the year so that we can put it all together in our overall Investment Board master plan, and then we can give the investors all the information about the opportunities, the security situation etc. to give them some assurance about their investments.”

How much FDI does Libya actually get? Guider answers in a smiling tone – a lot. Albeit, he concurs that Libya needs special investment: “As you know Libya has 6 million people, this is a wealthy country. We are looking for FDI but also for a lot of information and technology to improve our local private sector. The local private sector is very small, we would like to work with them through certain programs like PBB or private equity for example to improve the local private sector through FDI.”