Misrata has become the second city, after Tripoli, to set up a ‘one-stop shop’ to fast track overseas investments.
According to a report from Libya Herald, the move is part of Libya’s drive to attract foreign investors, with the shops having local powers to sort out new projects and speed their way through cumbersome bureaucracy.
Louai Ben Sasi, the local director of the General Authority for Investment Promotion and Privatisation Affairs (GAIPPA) (Central Region), told Libya Herald:
“The Misrata office of the GAIPPA was set up in 2008. But we had nothing to give foreign investors. We worked as a post office. We just wrote out forms and sent them to Tripoli and waited. Now we can make the decisions. We can give licences. We can give letters for tax and customs arrangements. We can do everything.”
While admitting that promoting foreign investment in the current security climate was a hard sell, Ben Sasi said that there were three projects in the pipeline:
- Corinthia Hotels from Malta are working on a beach resort called ‘The Waterfront’, on land that has been allocated by Misrata;
- Saudi investors are looking at building a shopping mall; and,
- a Turkish concern wants to build a factory near the LISCO iron and steel works, to use some of its output in manufacturing.
Further one-stop shops are planned for Benghazi and Sebha.
(Source: Libya Herald)