The Minister of Finance of the Government of National Unity, Khaled al-Mabrouk, met today, Wednesday, in Washington, with the Vice President of the World Bank for the Middle East and North Africa, Farid Belhaj, and the bank’s team of experts, to discuss the implementation of a strategic action plan between the State of Libya and the World Bank Group, and reopening the World Bank office in Tripoli.
During the meeting, a partnership memorandum was prepared between Libya and the Bank for 2023, and the capacity of workers in the sectors and institutions of the Libyan state was built.
Today, Wednesday, the Cabinet Office met with Minister of Social Affairs, Wafa Al-Kilani, Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Prime Minister, Adel Jumaa, to discuss the procedural steps to implement the instructions issued by the Prime Minister regarding the necessity of disbursing the children’s grant for the next three months during the next week, to help families beginning the school year, in addition to completing the issuance of cards for the wife’s grant and daughters over the age of 18 years.
It was agreed to transfer the grant to the Ministry of Finance at the beginning of next week, and to complete the distribution of bank cards to all beneficiaries, before the end of this month, to disburse the rest of the grant for the current year, and to address the problem of areas that do not have branches of the Jumhouria Bank.
An employee of the Libyan Airlines Company told our source today, Tuesday, regarding the peaceful protest of the company’s workers, which was scheduled to be organized this morning in front of the company’s headquarters on Omar Al-Mukhtar Street in Tripoli, that orders came from the Tripoli Security Directorate to cancel this protest.
The syndicate of employees of Libyan Airlines had called for a protest in front of the company’s headquarters to demand the government’s intervention to re-assign a new board of directors to the company and to solve the problem of delayed salaries, which amounted to 14 months.
The Libyan Prime Minister, Fathi Bashagha, stressed today, Tuesday, the need to address the struggles and take the necessary measures to limit attacks on the main lines of the man-made river and water facilities, and to harness the necessary capabilities to ensure the implementation of the tasks entrusted to the agency.
This came during the follow-up of Bashagha with the Chairman and members of the Board of Directors of the man-made river Implementation and Management Authority, the progress of work in the Authority and review of the strategic plan, stressing the need to focus on developing the river system to secure the water supply to the municipalities.
The Minister of Economy and Trade in the Government of National Unity, Mohamed Al-Huwaij, issued a decision banning the import of metal detectors of all kinds and for the different functions manufactured for them, for other than the public authorities authorized to import and use them from the Ministry of Interior and relevant authorities.
In his decision, Al-Huwaij directed the Ministry of Interior to keep special records for recording the devices referred to in this decision and the entities used for them, and to follow up on their storage and use.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Seddiq Al-Kabeer, agreed with the officials of the International Monetary Fund to launch a package of joint programs for the year 2023, set a road map for their implementation, and start holding Article 4 consultations of the IMF Agreement.
This came during Al-Kabeer’s meeting with the Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department, the Executive Director of the Libya Group at the International Monetary Fund, and the team of experts responsible for consultations between the Central Bank and the Fund, at the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund in the American capital, Washington.
The meeting also reviewed the financial and economic conditions in Libya and the efforts of the Central Bank to maintain financial sustainability and the progress made in technical cooperation programs between the Central Bank of Libya and the International Monetary Fund.
The Libyan Prime Minister, Fathi Bashagha, said that the adoption of the budget by a law from the House of Representatives is binding on the Central Bank of Libya and its board of directors to implement it so that they do not fall under the law, adding that he addressed the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Libya and found a response from them, and some funds were provided for the past period with a value of about one billion and 500 million dinars.
Bashagha added, in statements to WTV, that his government is waiting for more funds for the last quarter of the year, especially in the development item. He noted that they addressed all municipalities without exception to provide them with data and the most important struggles that need urgent treatments, and that the Libyan government is ready to serve all municipalities in the entire country and will also take the necessary measures in terms of development to implement projects in all parts of Libya.
With regard to the decision of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Libya to amend the exchange rate to about 4.26 dinars per dollar, which Al-Kabeer refused to implement. Bashagha said that for nearly 8 years, the Libyan dinar has lost its value until it reached a loss of 400% of its value, which affected the purchasing power of the citizen and the number of people who entered below the poverty line reached 2 million, so it is time to start the reform process and the Libyan dinar gets back its value.
Bashagha indicated that his government will work to ensure that the per capita share of development and services provided is equal for all citizens, east, west and south, adding that for this purpose, Parliament has formed a committee to manage resources, and the government is in the process of forming a committee that is also composed of a number of Libyan experts to develop a proposal of how to manage the financial resources of the state.
The Anti-Begging Committee, formed by a decision of the Minister of Social Affairs in the Government of National Unity, Wafa Al-Kilani, discussed its first meeting headed by Zahra Aweed, ways to establish a work mechanism in coordination with the relevant authorities to combat this phenomenon.
The head of the committee stressed the need to conduct social surveys and involve everyone to develop a societal strategy to limit them, identify their causes and address them to limit their negative effects on society.
Jumhouria Bank confirmed the resumption of work today, Sunday, in all branches, noting that cash liquidity is available in all its branches.
Jumhouria Bank clarified that the bank’s working hours are according to the official working hours, after updating the new banking system.
The bank’s sources denied all the misleading news they described regarding the opening of the bank and its branches on October 13, and called on all media outlets, social media pages and news sites to be accurate, investigate credibility, and verify the authenticity of the news from its official sources before publishing it.
Today, Sunday, the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, received a copy of the new Quran from the Committee of Holy Quran experts and followed up on its completion after more than 30 years of cessation of its printing. The result of the work continued for 5 years of review, auditing, drawing and evaluation by an expanded committee of sheikhs and professors of the Holy Quran from all Libyan cities.
In his speech, the Chairman of the Committee of Holy Quran Experts, Abdul Latif Al-Shweref, stressed the importance of this achievement, expressing thanks for all the efforts made by all parties that contributed to the printing of the Quran, which Libya accomplished in all its steps, and this for the first time, and that the new Quran version will be announced at the end of this month.
