New Libya - Boom or Bust??

What role is religion playing in the rebuild?

Morning Siddiqui,
I went back for 10 days, start of January.
I totally agree, no one wants to work but they all want paying, It's going to take years before Libya is back to any kind of normality

Siddiqui wrote:

Libyan people's attitude towards foreign companies is startling. The general consensus is that the foreign companies operating in Libya have been milking the country dry and raking in the money under Qaddafi's reign so now they should be paying it back to the locals.

Why so surprised? The above is not that far off from the truth tough.

Siddiqui wrote:

Further information from the pipeline says that the ministry of labour is issuing a letter against releasing of any local staff by the companies and to get them back to work ASAP even though there is no work and no means for the companies to pay the salaries.

Thats also not unexpected. These people have been living in war for a long time. They need money to eat and rebuild their homes.

The companies operating in Libya over the years have also been providing employment opportunities to the locals. Many smallers regional companies have a majority Libyan staff population.

Most of the international companies have provided some sort of compensation to the locals over this period even though not required by law.

So if the revolution started by the Libyans caused damage to their properties then the international business community is to blame for it and should be penalized? That's convoluted logic to me.

This is a sure fire way of warning other potential businesses to stay away from Libya and to take their money somewhere else.

The government has enough resources at it's disposal to pay for sustenance of its population and cover the cost of rebuild..... after all it's a peoples' government.

Not every company working in Libya is Schlumberger,Halliburton or other such multinational with deep pockets that can cover the cost of one year of payroll without any revenue to compensate the expense.

Siddiqui,

You want the libyan goverment to pay for your lose? now thats a first! you should be thanking your god that they didnt ask how you got to work in libya in the first place, we all know who brought all those little companies to work in libya. second if you dont have deep pockets  you shouldnt be doing business in libya.
It's very sad to see how the previous goverment was doing business, they brought anything anyone to come and rip this country off.

I don't believe that Siddiqui was asking to be repaid for anything.... just did not want to be responsible for paying for other's losses.  From the looks of things Siddiqui, you will not be getting much information sharing here.  It has been a pretty quiet place these days anyways.  Best of luck to you and hope your company is able to carry the load until things pick up and get sorted.

Thanks Bluejay, I guess you are right.

Miraculous ........

I've been so curious.... what has happened to all of the nice, new hotels in Tripoli? Did they survive?

hotels are fine. marriott has had water problems and is not open but supposedly will be next month. sheraton as far as i know is fine. rixos, corinthia both in operation although due to less staff the restaurants are not all operating as before. supposedly radisson italian will open next week. coffee shops are open and also to be fair. money is tight for many libyans. i do see improvement but it's slow. there is more merchandise in the stores and in the souk. kids are back in school, local elections are slowly being organised and taking place. misurata is due to happen next friday. libya is moving forward but they are dragging 42 years of mindset behind them. to me it's like a whole country with stockholm syndrome. it's all tentative but as their confidence grows and understanding of what real democracy is, things will settle down. the announcement this week re: the wounded outside the country is a huge step forward in my view.

Siddiqui btw was this rumored letter ever issued?? that's one thing that needs to die -- the RUMOR mill!

Hotels too are living a nightmare, fights (armed) occurring all the time (inside and outside). the Mahari  which you must know as Radisson and the Corinthia are loosing so much money because they dare not portray an unpatriotic image, so irresponsible brigades and freedom fighter are taking rooms and damaging their furniture and using every surface as an ashtray, things are getting arranged now but for the year 2011 Hotels were a real panic, there is more security prevailing but still everything is possible.

concerning the main subject, I'm Libyan and I too demand the nullification of all the contracts especially the ones concluded with oil companies, where those should be reconditioned in order to better serve the new LIBYA. enough with those dreamy deals that the big names (BP, Exxon.....)get which in a nutshell would be under completely different terms should there have been no corruption in the kaddafi regime (as Baghdadi -Libya's PM must be putting it: "ill make you a billionaire if you make me a millionaire!" )

whats fair is fair, we should be making more lucrative deals, and sell our extinguishable natural resources at the price they should,  which is sky high, and please dont see this as an extreme measure that would end up raising gasoline prices wherever you may live, because the prices you guys are paying  eg. US or UK are already rip-off prices, your own companies are screwing you!.

well i agree with some of what you just said but i generally believe that if you need to fix something try to improve in the future not start digging the past. look at this https://www.pm.gov.ly under the link of tenders. You have to set an example by leading from the front where are the specs in these tenders.