The only thing that challenges Libyans over the next ten years is education and renewing the culture of the people. I always say that living is an art, and that the art of living in Libya has to change. Particularly the work culture has to change, it is no longer just about getting your salary at the end of the month, we want people to think about how they can develop and progress in their jobs.
I hope Libya will have the chance to become a mix of all these visions, to become a country with a good chance of being one of the leading developing countries in the next 10 years. Tourism is a sector that Libya has not really developed yet at all and currently in Tripoli we have less than 3,000 rooms for guests. I saw a study talking about Libya over the next 10 years that said that we should have more than 100,000 rooms in Tripoli alone. This is one major issue; tourism here is not developed at all. We also have to develop our oil sector. Libya has had one of the lowest investment rates in terms of developing the local oil area in the Middle East. I think if you compare us to Saudi Arabia or the Gulf States, we are developing less than 30% of the income from the oil sectors.
In terms of airports, we only have two major airports in Libya: Tripoli and Benghazi. We also have one in Misrata but it is very small. This sector requires a lot of development. Libya could easily become a transit hub connecting the Far East with North America. It can be the gateway to Europe and Africa.
Libya has a lot of potential, whether the Libyan people are able to deliver it is what we are going to see over the next few years. As a Libyan I have a lot of faith in our people and in what they can do.
We see a lot of mixed messages in the media. We have critics saying that Libya will descend into a civil war and that there are a lot of pro-loyals who are now arming in the south. There are also those that are predicting 18% growth for Libya in 2013. The Libyan Herald just reported that Libya is going to spend US $140 billion on infrastructure projects. In your opinion, is Libya being oversold? Are the negative reports really representing what is happening on the ground?
I think Libya has passed through very difficult times, the revolution was a difficult time but in the end it united the people. In the last months of Gaddafi’s time in power, he really tried to create a lot of division amongst the people. Thobacts Hotel Tripoli coffee shopWe had hoped that Libya could get through the revolution without so much bloodshed but unfortunately that was not the case. We need time to resolve the problems from the war, in all regions of the country. I think that time is the only solution for solving these problems.
Regarding the billions of government spending, the issue is not the amount they are going to spend, but rather how they are going to spend it. Also, with the government that Libya has right now, do you believe that we are capable of spending this kind of money? I mean if you have US $50 billion and you have a Minister of Housing and Infrastructure who by the middle of the year has not started any projects yet, how are they going to spend the money by the end of the year? You can’t. One of the greatest problems we have here in Libya is bad management.