Libya’s Minister of Oil and Gas, Mohamed Oun, met on Thursday with the Chinese Ambassador to Libya, Wang Chimin, and his delegation.
The meeting discussed the possibility of returning Chinese companies to Libya in the fields of oil and gas, and renewable energies.
For his part, the Chinese Ambassador reiterated his country’s readiness to resume working from inside the country.
The Maltese government is ready to ship the 1.2 billion dinars currently held in Malta to be used for “the good and wellbeing of the Libyan people who have endured so much suffering over the years,” Foreign Affairs Minister Evarist Bartolo has said.
Back in 2019, the cash was confiscated in transit on its way to Libya, which was in the middle of a conflict at the time. The money had been found stored inside two containers and was believed to be destined for the forces commanded by Khalifa Haftar, who at that time was laying siege to the Libyan capital.
The announcement was made during a working visit to the Russian Federation, where Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Evarist Bartolo held a bilateral meeting with his counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
In Sochi, the two sides discussed a wide array of topics of bilateral, regional and international importance. Among other things, the two sides also had a positive exchange of views on Libya, with Minister Bartolo reiterating Malta’s belief in a free, united Libya run by Libyans.
The Overseas Disputes Department of Libya’s Supreme Judicial Council announced yesterday that the Paris Court of Appeal nullified on 23 March 2021 the partial arbitration judgment issued on 15 February 2021 regarding the correct formation of the arbitration panel.
The arbitration panel was for a case filed by the UAE based DS Construction against the Libyan state and its public institutions obliging the company to pay the Libyan state an amount of 150,000 Euros for attorney’s fees and expenses.
The Overseas Disputes Department also announced that on 23 March 2021 the South Cairo Court of First Instance acquitted the Libyan state from paying the judicial fees estimated at 350 million Egyptian pounds as a result of a judgment issued in favour of the Hanna family.
The Head of Media Office of Tobruk parliament, Abdullah Blihig, claimed that the House of Representatives (HoR) has approved Chapter 1 of the budget which is related to the salaies.
It will be reminded that the consultative session in Tobruk yesterday discussed and voted on the proposed national budget of the Government of National Unity (GNU).
The HoR, according to sources, will hold a session on Tuesday to discuss the rest of the budget.
On 23 May, the Co-Chairs of the Economic Working Group (EWG) including the UNSMIL CoordinatorRaisedon Zenenga,together with the Ambassador Mohamed Abubakr of Egypt, Special Envoy and Ambassador Richard Norland of the United States of America,and Ambassador Jose Sabadell of the European Unionconvened a meeting with the Government of National Unity to review the Economic Track and discuss collaboration on the way forward.
The Government of National Unity was represented by a high-level delegation from the Ministries of Economy, Finance, Planning, Foreign Affairs, and the Prime Minister’s Office.
All participants agreed on the importance of maintaining the momentum on the economic track, including on further developing and harmonizing critical policies and moving forward with the unification of Libya’s financial and economic institutions. Among the issues discussed was the importance of the swift adoption of the 2021 national budget.
Participants emphasized the interconnectedness between the economic, political, and security tracks of the Berlin Process and the importance of parallel progress in all tracks. They agreed to follow up the meeting with technical-level discussions to identify priority areas of collaboration in advance of the Second Berlin Ministerial Conference on Libya on 23 June 2021, including a possible physical meeting to agree on an implementable action plan.
After its first budget proposal was rejected, the Government of National Unity (GNU) sent a revised budget to the Libyan Parliament.
The overall amount of the revised budget is now 93 billion and 878 million dinars, according to information gathered by Libyan media sources.
The total sum of funds in Chapter One, which included wages and other expenses, was 34,674,716,450 dinars. The funds for Chapter Two are for administration, facilities, and operations, totaling 12,603,307,400 dinars, while Chapter Three funds are for construction projects and services, totaling 20 billion dinars.
Support expenditures were allocated 22,600.000,000 dinars in Chapter Four, while emergency expenditures were estimated to be about 4 billion dinars in Chapter Five.
Oil revenues are forecast to bring in 89,300,000,000 dinars, while the budget’s sovereign revenues and processing fees come from six sources, the most important of which are taxes, which will bring in 1,200,000,000 dinars, and customs revenues, which will bring in 300 million dinars.
The budget also allocated 450 million dinars for communications, 300 million dinars for income at the Libyan Central Bank, 330 million dinars for revenues from selling fuel on the local market, and 474,923,000 dinars for service fees and other revenues.
Libya’s House of Representatives (HoR) declared late last week that an official session will be held in Tobruk tomorrow, Monday, to discuss the draft budget for 2021 and the country’s sovereign positions.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and his Tunisian counterpart Hichem Mechichi on Sunday inaugurated the Libyan-Tunisian Economic Forum and Exhibition in the Libyan capital Tripoli.
“The two leaders toured the exhibition halls, during which they were briefed on the exhibited products of a number of companies in several sectors, including construction, infrastructure, tourism and foodstuffs,” said a statement issued by the Libyan government’s information office.
More than 170 companies from various sectors participated in the exhibition, along with 1,200 businessmen.
Mechichi on Sunday described his two-day official visit to Libya as “successful and fruitful, the results of which will appear soon.”
The two leaders on Saturday signed an agreement on promoting mutual trade and facilitating movement of travelers.
The agreement also included technical cooperation on land, sea and air transportation, as well as activating the work of joint commissions on land and sea transportation.
The Tunisian Minister of Equipment, Housing and Infrastructure (MEHAT), Kamal Doukh, said that a high-ranking Tunisian delegation, headed by the Tunisian Prime Minister, Hicham Mechichi, is expected to travel to Libya next Sunday, in order to participate in the Tunisian-Libyan Exhibition on reconstruction and trade exchange.
Doukh stressed in a press statement that the exhibition is set to initiate cooperation between Tunisia and Libya with a hope to develop integration between both countries, with the aim of entering the African market, emphasizing that the future of Tunisia is also the future of Libya.
He added that the exhibition is expected to be attended by approximately 150 exhibitors from Tunisia in various expertise.
The Libyan Minister of Economy and Trade, Mohamed Al-Hweij, discussed on Wednesday with the Ambassador of Algeria to Libya, Kamal Hegazy, means of boosting trade relations between both countries and strengthening investment project in the southern region.
During the meeting, the both sides discussed mechanism for regulating trade and other commercial exchanges between the two countries.
They also discussed support for businessmen and coordination between private sector companies in Libya and Algeria through organizing joint conferences and exhibitions to enhance cooperation prospects and the general program of the Algerian-Libyan Economic Forum to be held in Algeria at the end of this month.
They agreed to hold joint meetings during the coming period with the participation of chambers of commerce and businessmen in the two countries, with the aim of strengthening trade relations and implementing investment projects in all regions.
On Thursday, the Speaker of Parliament, Ageela Saleh, met US Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland in Cairo.
During the meeting, Ageela Saleh reiterated the need to hold elections on time, on December 24.
For his part, Norland stressed that the House of Representatives is the only entity entitled to approving a constitutional basis for elections and the budget for the government.
Saleh and Norland discussed the latest developments in Libya, in addition to international and national efforts to implement the roadmap of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum.