{"id":9238,"date":"2011-10-29T20:53:33","date_gmt":"2011-10-29T20:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=9238"},"modified":"2011-10-29T20:53:33","modified_gmt":"2011-10-29T20:53:33","slug":"western-companies-see-prospects-for-business-in-libya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2011\/10\/western-companies-see-prospects-for-business-in-libya\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Companies See Prospects for Business in Libya"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The guns in Libya have barely quieted, and NATO\u2019s military assistance to the rebellion that toppled Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi will not end officially until Monday. But a new invasion force is already plotting its own landing on the shores of Tripoli.<\/span><\/p>\n

Western security, construction and infrastructure companies that see profit-making opportunities receding in Iraq and Afghanistan have turned their sights on Libya, now free of four decades of dictatorship. Entrepreneurs are abuzz about the business potential of a country with huge needs and the oil to pay for them, plus the competitive advantage of Libyan gratitude toward the United States and its NATO partners.<\/span><\/p>\n

A week before Colonel Qaddafi\u2019s death on Oct. 20, a delegation from 80 French companies arrived in Tripoli to meet officials of the Transitional National Council, the interim government. Last week, the new British defense minister, Philip Hammond, urged British companies to \u201cpack their suitcases\u201d and head to Tripoli.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Colonel Qaddafi\u2019s body was still on public display, a British venture, Trango Special Projects, pitched its support services to companies looking to cash in. \u201cWhilst speculation continues regarding Qaddafi\u2019s killing,\u201d Trango said on its Web site, \u201care you and your business ready to return to Libya?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The company offered rooms at its Tripoli villa and transport \u201cby our discreet mixed British and Libyan security team.\u201d Its discretion does not come cheaply. The price for a 10-minute ride from the airport, for which the ordinary cab fare is about $5, is listed at 500 British pounds, or about $800.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a gold rush of sorts taking place right now,\u201d said David Hamod, president and chief executive officer of the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce. \u201cAnd the Europeans and Asians are way ahead of us. I\u2019m getting calls daily from members of the business community in Libya. They say, \u2018Come back, we don\u2019t want the Americans to lose out.\u2019 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet there is hesitancy on both sides, and so far the talk greatly exceeds the action. The Transitional National Council, hoping to avoid any echo of the rank corruption of the Qaddafi era, has said no long-term contracts will be signed until an elected government is in place. And with cities still bristling with arms and jobless young men, Libya does not offer anything like a safe business environment \u2014 hence the pitches from security providers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like France and Britain, the United States may benefit from the Libyan authorities\u2019 appreciation of NATO\u2019s critical air support for the revolution. Whatever the rigor of new rules governing contracts, Western companies hope to have some advantage over, say, China, which was offering to sell arms to Colonel Qaddafi as recently as July.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRevenge may be too strong a word,\u201d said Phil Dwyer, director of SCN Resources Group, a Virginia contracting company that opened an office in Tripoli two weeks ago to offer \u201crisk management\u201d advice and services to a company he would not name. \u201cBut my feeling is those who are in favor\u201d with the transitional council \u201care going to get the nod from a business point of view.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Security Contracting Network, a job service run by Mr. Dwyer\u2019s company, posted on its blog two days after Colonel Qaddafi\u2019s death that there would be plenty of work opening up in Libya.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be an uptick of activity as foreign oil companies scramble to get back to Libya,\u201d the company said, along with a need for logistics and security personnel as the State Department and nonprofit organizations expand operations. \u201cKeep an eye on who wins related contracts, follow the money, and find your next job,\u201d the post advised.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Tripoli, there is a wait-and-see atmosphere. At breakfast on Friday in a downtown hotel, a British security contractor pointed out the tables of burly men \u2014 hired guns like himself. \u201cLook at it,\u201d he said. \u201cFull of \u2019em.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Many are still protecting foreign journalists, but others are hoping to get training contracts with a fledgling government trying to tame its unruly armed forces. Security industry officials say the work here may never match the colossal scale of spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, but with a squeeze coming on European and American government spending, it is a prize nonetheless.<\/span><\/p>\n

Business opportunities for Western companies began opening in Libya in 2004, when Colonel Qaddafi\u2019s decision to give up his nuclear weapons program ended his country\u2019s pariah status. Mr. Hamod led four American business delegations to Libya between 2004 and 2010 and watched \u201ca gradual thawing of commercial relations,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Total foreign direct investment in Libya had grown to $3.8 billion in 2010, from an estimated at $145 million in 2002, according to the World Bank. But many deals were skewed by brazen demands from Colonel Qaddafi\u2019s children for a share of the proceeds, and the state of the country was grim after many years of economic sanctions and neglect.<\/span><\/p>\n

Libya \u201cneeded everything,\u201d Mr. Hamod said: banking and financial services, hospitals and medical clinics, roads and bridges, and infrastructure for energy and for the oil industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, after months of fighting, and with the security situation still fragile, there are huge new requirements, like rebuilding apartment complexes reduced to rubble by shelling, guarding oil installations as they restore or expand production, and training and equipping new armed forces.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Hamod said American companies are often more hesitant than Chinese or some European companies about operating in a tumultuous environment like that of post-Qaddafi Libya. \u201cThere\u2019s reluctance to charge headlong back into Libya,\u201d he said. \u201cHistorically, U.S. companies are interested in the rule of law on the ground and what it might mean for a multimillion-dollar investment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At a Group of 8 meeting in Marseille, France, in September, finance ministers pledged $38 billion in new financing, largely loans, to Arab countries between 2011 and 2013. Though Libya is now pumping less than one-third of its prewar oil production of 1.7 million barrels a day, it has Africa\u2019s largest oil reserves, which eventually should mean a steady supply of cash.<\/span><\/p>\n

The simultaneous excitement and confusion for people exploring opportunities in Libya are evident in proliferating Libya-themed groups on LinkedIn, the online business-oriented social network.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCan anyone in the group tell me if there are flights into Tripoli,\u201d wrote Peter Murphy, an Irish surveyor now working on an offshore wind project, on a LinkedIn discussion page called Anglo Libya Business Group. \u201cAlso, what is the situation for business visas for business travelers?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One answer came from Mabruk Swayah, who identified himself on LinkedIn as a Libyan working in business development. \u201cHi friends you are all welcome to Libya,\u201d Mr. Swayah wrote. \u201cJust make sure you go through the proper channels for your work contracts and don\u2019t get involved in bribes, inducements or sweeteners to officials.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He added, \u201cRemember we have free media now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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