Built Operate and Transfer (BOT) is the realistic way forward for the completion of Libya’s railway project, Libyan Railroads’ Khaled Abuzakouk said at Tuesday’s Tripoli workshop organised by Libyan Railroads under the banner ‘‘The Importance of Railways to Sustainable Growth, Transit Trade and Economic Development’’
He said the contracting and financing method is much used now across the world and has proved a successful way to complete projects. Abuzakouk stressed that Libya does not currently have the finances to complete its railway projects, let alone all the other projects it needs to complete.
He gave the UAE’s Jabal Ali Free Port project as a good example of the BOT formula for a large infrastructure project. He noted that the Jabal Ali project acted as a catalyst for the development of Dubai and the UAE.
The BOT formula would enable Libya to benefit from advanced international knowhow and experience and gets round Libya’s lack of finances. The method also ensures that the project id constructed and operated efficiently as foreign investors would want to return their investment within a certain timescale.
The formula also bypasses the overreliance on the bureaucratic Libyan state system for the build and operate period including the government, Audit Bureau, and the Central Bank of Libya and its control over foreign currency releases.
Abuzakouk gave Morocco as the prime example of use of the BOT method. Its rail system is the most advanced in Africa – all built through the BOT formula.
The BOT method is much better for the Libyan state than being stuck in a loan process with all its vagaries, he added.
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