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By Sami Zaptia.
London, 30 March 2018:
The Faiez Serraj-led Presidency Council has formed a committee to review all contracts with Chinese companies.
PC decree number 188 dated 14 February but published on 28 March creates a committee of 8 people headed by the PC’s Minister of Planning. The 8 representative members are:
1-The Minister of Planning
2-The Economic and Social Development Fund (ESDF)
3-The Organization for the Development of Administrative Centres (ODAC)
4-The Housing and Infrastructure Board (HIB)
5-The Libyan Stock Exchange
6-The Railways Execution Board
7-The Audit Bureau
8-The Central Bank of Libya
The decree stipulates that the committee is tasked with solving all the delayed and stalled construction contracts, and any other associated contracts, with Chinese companies.
This is to be achieved through negotiations and discussion with relevant parties in China in order to arrive at a comprehensive vision through which to arrive at a rebalanced contractual relationship.
The committee has 60 days to conduct its work after which it must present a report to Presidency Council head Faiez Serraj.
It will be recalled that the Presidency Council had announced earlier this month that it was carrying out a review of all 22,000 stalled contracted projects estimated to be worth US$ 110 bn.
It must also be borne in mind that successive transitional Libyan governments since the 2011 revolution have reviewed and assessed Libya’s stalled projects – without any clear tangible results.
A conference was also held in Istanbul at the end of February this year to discuss stalled Libyan projects contracted to Turkish companies. Sources informed Libya Herald that at the meeting, a set of proposals were agreed – at the heart of which lies the ability of the Libyan state to pay at least some of its outstanding debts to Turkish companies.
Sources at the Libyan Ministry of Planning confirmed to Libya Herald that a separate committee, headed by the Planning Minister, has already been formed by the Presidency Council to review contracts specifically with Turkish companies.
The source revealed that a third committee is to be formed soon to review contracts with Libyan companies. ‘‘The purpose is to sort out contracts, try to solve certain issues and kick-start selected contracts and projects’’, the highly placed Ministry of Planning source said on the strict condition of anonymity.
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