What would you say is the outlook for private business and what would you specify as being the major challenge?
This is related to the previous question: the government has more than 95% of the capital and money. This is true because the major projects in Libya have been run by the government through private or public companies. What they did before was they brought in companies from outside Libya to do most of the infrastructure, public housing and roads etc.
So what we hope that the Libyan government will try to do now is to look more closely at how this money is spent, because if the local private sector does not grow then there will not be real economic development in Libya. The economy will only grow if the local population and the middle classes grow and this will only happen if they have enough business or enough income.
I think our main advantage is our staff; they are very friendly and kind and they treat people as though they were guests in their own homes. We also have excellent locations in Tripoli; all our hotels are in the centre of the city. We focus mainly on business hospitality. Our hotels are very central, near to the Tripoli Fair and we also try to provide excellent services such as high speed internet that businessmen and businesswomen are looking for.
Government spending is one issue and the other is banking. The banking system in Libya is very old; it is one of the most orthodox systems in the world. We still have a very old fashioned way of running our banks. If we aren’t able to offer loans to the people, then they will not succeed in the private sector. The Libyan people have suffered a lot in Gaddafi’s time, now they have much better possibilities for success.
What in your opinion is the vision for Libya? There is an article which summarised the visions for Libya; one was to become a kind of Dubai of North Africa, another was to become a modern Islamic society based on knowledge but lacking in economy and third was that Libya would become a trading inter-port between Africa and Europe. What is your personal vision for Libya?
I would like Libya to become a mix of all of these visions that you mentioned. We are an Arabic Islamic country and we are in the middle of the world, we should have good relations with all countries and there is no reason why we shouldn’t have good relations with all the Mediterranean countries around us. Secondly, I think Libya should be able to exceed Dubai, due to its position, the local population, the geographical areas, the 2,000km coastline; you name it, we have it!