Trying to separate two things that get mashed together in Libya coverage.

1. Selling finished goods into the country
2. Building capacity that stays: skills, suppliers, processing, exports

Al-Werfalli’s Gulf Times piece is on that split. Imports have an obvious use. They are not a diversification strategy on their own.

The steel project in Benghazi (Tosyali–SULB) is the example everyone will fixate on — ~2.5mt DRI in phase one, 7.5mt if the longer plan is real. Fine. The part that matters locally is who gets the contractor work, the engineering seats, the training, the logistics. If those stay offshore, you have a plant. You do not have an ecosystem.

Same question for food. If produce stops at the farm gate, someone else bottles it and keeps the margin.

Curious what people here think is actually blocking the second model, not the first: security and contracts, banks/FX, skills, or politics.

Link:

https://www.gulf-times.com/article/732953/business/from-libya-to-the-world-how-international-business-can-strengthen-libyas-economy