The Prime Minister of the National Unity Government, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, instructed today Sunday all relevant ministries to work to provide the necessary and required facilities, stressing the Ministry of Local Government that the Municipal Guard should work at full capacity and throughout the country, following up on prices and in cooperation with the concerned authorities.
Dbeibeh added that the Ministry of Economy and Trade should control goods and their prices, noting that the Ministry of Finance should coordinate with all ministries, bodies and institutions in disbursing salaries and grants in a timely manner and all the allowances prescribed for a number of segments of this society.
The President of the Presidential Council, Mohamed Al-Manfi, met today Sunday with the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Seddik Al-Kabeer, to discuss the steps taken to unify the monetary institution, and the bank’s follow-up to the financial and economic conditions in the country.
Al-Manfi affirmed the continued support of the Presidential Council for efforts aimed at achieving economic stability, including unifying the monetary institution in all its stages.
The Director of the Commercial Department at the Ministry of Economy, Mustafa Qadara, spoke in a press statement about the situation in commodity prices and leaving the competitive environment for traders. He said: « The year 2019 was the most stable year in prices and there is strong competition to the extent that some commodities have not been marketed. The problem in the private and public sectors is that when the state wants to know the results of some commodities and how much the quantity is, we see that the private sector does not give the information or the number and the real balance, so a demand was made to run a general grain authority that the state takes over and supervises, to work on a strategic stock and imports wheat, and we consider ourselves as the only country that imports a small amount of wheat in one million Tons of wheat, as the private sector is making an effort to provide it, but the international prices of wheat rose and the dollar also rose. »
Qadara added: « We conducted a study to choose seven or eight basic commodities that should be considered for support, as well as importing large quantities in their season from the state at a lower price, unlike private companies when they import 20 thousand tons and others 50 thousand tons, there will be completely different prices, and we hope that the state will respond and work on a stockpile of wheat.
He continued: « The issue of basic commodities of interest to the citizen must be considered, but the support we consider to be a problem, prices must be affordable for everyone. »
Qadara concluded his speech: « Most important of all, goods must reach the citizen in the easiest and easiest way, and the state must develop solutions for the citizen, whether by support or by giving. »
The spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Health, Hussem Abdul Ghaffar, said today Saturday, that with regard to the treatment of Libyans inside Egyptian territory, there is already a draft agreement between the Egyptian and Libyan ministries of health in particular.
For his part, Abdul Ghaffar stressed that this draft has not been signed at the present time and is still under supervision, and that the Egyptian Ministry of Health will welcome this agreement and it may soon be a reality.
A committee was held to follow up the production of flour in the Libyan market to develop an appropriate mechanism to overcome the flour crisis in the country by a decision of the Minister of Industry and Minerals.
This committee was formed to follow up on the production of flour in the Libyan market where it prepared a unified form to follow up and inventory the quantities of raw materials from wheat and the quantities of stock from the production of flour, and that in communication with the concerned authorities, such as the Ministry of Economy and Trade, the Bakers’ Syndicate, the National Company for Mills Benghazi, the National Company for Mills and Fodder Shareholding in Tripoli, and the private mills companies in Libya.
At the end of the meeting, the minister stressed to expedite the necessary procedures to inventory the existing quantities of wheat and the stock of flour in order to reach a solution to the current crisis as soon as possible.
The director of the General Authority for Investment Promotion and Privatization Affairs branch in Benghazi, Abdul Nasser Najm, visited the project to establish a passenger terminal at Benina International Airport in Benghazi, accompanied by the heads of privatization departments, as part of the follow-up to investment projects approved by the authority.
The delegation of the authority met with the General Director of the Bank of Commerce and Development, which is responsible for establishing the project, and the project manager at the executing company X port Group, and was also briefed on a visual presentation of the project to establish a passenger terminal at Benina Airport with a capacity of (two million five hundred passengers) 2,500,000, annually in accordance with international specifications and standards, and services and facilities in the project, which also includes a free market and offices for businessmen.
At the conclusion of the visit, the director of the authority’s branch in Benghazi commended the efforts of those in charge of implementing the project according to the ten-month timetable, as the passenger terminal is expected to open during next April, stressing that the project to establish a passenger terminal at Benina Airport is the result of the authority’s efforts to move the wheel of investment and infrastructure development. The basic principles of the State of Libya in order to enhance the role of the sector in supporting the national economy, spatial development and encouraging the private sector with the aim of achieving economic diversification.
The Undersecretary of Navigation in the Oil Ports, Ahmed Bashir, confirmed today Saturday in a statement to our source that exports from the oil ports of Brega, Zuwetina and Sidra have been suspended this morning, due to the bad weather conditions the country is witnessing today.
In his statement, Al-Bashir added that tomorrow the movement will resume, even if temporarily, to receive a number of oil ships, noting that the ports are expected to open again tomorrow if the weather conditions improve.
The US Ambassador to Libya, Norland, met with his main colleagues representing the Economic Working Group, represented by the United Nations Coordinator Ray Zeninga, the European Union Ambassador Jose Sabadell, the Egyptian Ambassador Tamer Mustafa, as well as the Governor of the Central Bank, Seddiq Al-Kabeer, a representative of the eastern branch of the Central Bank of Libya, and the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance for budget execution.
Akrah stressed the need to support the National Oil Corporation to raise the level of production in light of the current prices, and to distance it from any interactions that hinder transferring its revenues to the account of public revenue, as it is a staple for all Libyans.
He also emphasized the need to support the health sector, provide services and medicines, and solve the problems of treatment yards abroad. He affirmed his support for efforts to unify salaries through a unified schedule for all government sector workers and release the salaries of new employees referred by the Ministry of Civil Service.
He concluded his speech with the need to complete development projects and restore life, as well as the need to provide equipment and textbooks for students.
The correspondence of the designated Minister of Civil Service, Ali Al-Abed to the Minister of Finance, Khaled Al-Mabrouk, and transmitted an electronic copy of the second batch of financial releases yesterday, included the data of 36,463 employees and teachers from the ministry of Education who met the conditions of release, as well as employees of the 25,753 administrative units distributed over 198 administrative units.
The head of the State Audit Bureau, Khaled Shakshak, asked the Chairman of the Directors Board of the National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanalla, urgently to refer the oil revenues to the state’s sovereign account in the Libyan Foreign Bank, given the harm that this causes to the public interest and the lack of justification for withholding the revenues.
According to the correspondence sent by the head of the bureau to Sanallah, which our source obtained a copy of, Shakshak stressed that the failure of the National Oil Corporation to transfer these revenues, despite the lack of justification, will cause damage to the public interest, especially those related to basic needs of the society and the losses it will cause to the Central Bank as a result of liquidating deposits to meet the demand for foreign exchange that is required by the urgent necessity.
In his letter, the Audit Bureau stressed that the withholding of oil revenues by the head of the National Oil Corporation represents a grave violation of the legislation in force, especially Petroleum Law N° 25 of 1955 and the Law of the State’s Financial System and the Budget, Accounts and Stores Regulations, stressing the need to refer these revenues to the sovereign account urgently.
