Libyan assets that have been unfrozen over the weekend amounted to over U.S $ 100 billion, Hassan Zaqlam, finance minister of the transitional government said. The unfreezing of these funds was announced following the decision of the United Nations Security Council to lift the ban over the assets of the Central Bank of Libya and the Libyan Foreign Bank, Hassan Zaqlam said Sunday night on public television 'Libya'.
Of the assets unfrozen, the Central Bank’s owns U.S $ 97 billion, the remaining eight billion dollars, belonging to the Libyan Foreign Bank, the minister said.
He noted that these amounts will be mainly geared towards the reconstruction program and the signing of contracts with a number of companies, particularly in regard to the maintenance and rehabilitation of schools and some hospitals, police stations, ministries and state institutions that were destroyed during the Revolution.
The Libyan official added that contracts will be signed with several companies for the completion of ongoing projects which stopped due to the crisis and which had reached levels of achievement between 70 and 80 pc, especially projects for the construction of universities and airports.
The finance minister said that some of the recovered funds will be allocated to the general budget for 2012, after its development by the transitional government and its adoption by the National Transitional Council (NTC).
He stressed that the procedures for release of the pledged amounts will take about one month to give enough time to appropriate Libyan banks to pay companies and open credit lines.
He said these funds will help solve the liquidity crisis currently affecting the Libyan commercial banks.
(Source: Afrique en Ligne)
