The Spokesman for the Tripoli based Libyan Ministry of Finance, Faisal Al-Hamali, confirmed Wednesday in an exclusive interview with Libya Herald that the Minister of Finance, Khaled Al-Mabrouk, and the representative of the African Development Bank (AfDB) signed three agreements on Tuesday. The three agreements include:The African Development Bank’s provision of technical assistance to the Ministry of Finance in the areas of financial reform and the shift towards digital systems. Emergency support for the Libyan regions and cities affected by Storm Daniel that hit regions of eastern Libya. Al-Hamali stressed the cooperation between the Ministry of Finance and the AfDB, especially in supporting small and medium enterprises, capacity building, water projects, transportation, and the digital transformation project in the financial sector. He noted the interest of the Minister of Finance, Khaled Al-Mabrouk, in opening new horizons of cooperation with the AfDB, in which Libya is considered one of the main contributors.

Opposition leader Bernard Grech has claimed the problem in overpopulation is the root to all problems in the country. “The population has grown substantially and nearly doubled since 2013, and that is because for this government the importation of foreign workers is the only solution to its shortcomings in the economic sectors,” Grech said. The Nationalist leader was speaking during the debate of the Budget estimates of the Office of the Prime Minister. Grech also claimed government is hiding the true numbers of the country’s population. Grech said Bartolo should resign from the PAC, and if he does not do so willingly, should be removed by the Prime Minister.

Technology should be used to bring together the different culture of the Mediterranean, Clayton Bartolo told the Mediterranean Tourism Forum Ministers’ Summit on Wednesday. “As Maltese, and as the Mediterranean region, we should strive to be more innovative in the way we preserve cultural traditions alongside the present and future through technology,” the tourism minister told the summit. The Mediterranean Tourism Forum Ministers’ Summit saw ministers and representatives from Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Libya, Italy, Palestine and Spain coming together in Malta. Making the industry more sustainable and the digitalisation of tourism were among the themes discussed during the summit.

According to CAPMAS, the total value of exports to COMESA countries reached $3.544 million during 2022, marking a 15.6 percent rise from the $3.066 million recorded in 2021. The top five COMESA countries to which Egypt directs its exports, namely Libya, Sudan, Kenya, Tunisia, and Djibouti, collectively represent 84.8 percent of the bloc's total imports. Tunisia and Djibouti complete the list with imports worth $306 million and $173 million, respectively. Furthermore, Egypt witnessed a substantial increase in its total imports from COMESA countries in 2022, reaching $1.887 million, marking a noteworthy growth of 43.1 percent compared to $1.319 million in 2021. Collectively, these five countries account for 92.6 percent of the bloc's total exports to Egypt.

Register Now"OPEC includes non-Arab countries [and] perhaps they will not be willing to do it (oil embargo)," Mohamed Oun told S&P Global Commodity Insights in a Nov. 21 interview. OPEC member Iran has been the most vocal producer within the group calling for a Muslim oil embargo, which has so far been rejected by the Gulf producers. The 1973 embargo created an unprecedented global oil crisis that led to the quadrupling of prices and gasoline shortages in the US. Iranian calls for an oil embargo come amid massive voluntary oil cuts from Saudi Arabia and Russia, the two countries co-leading OPEC+. These cuts are on top of the 2 million b/d OPEC+ curbs that started in November, 2022 and have been extended till the end of 2024.

Russia and Turkey continue to keep troops in Libya despite agreeing to withdraw their troops. Both nations want to protect their interests in Libya with sufficient guarantees that their economic agreements will be respected. Turks and Russians are troublemakers in Europe and Libya is a foreign branch of that mischief. Right now, the Russian presence in Ukraine is more of a problem than the few Russian troops left in Libya. The Russians remain in Libya to look after deals they made with one of the Libyan governments to obtain oil exploration opportunities.

400 detained Pakistani migrants in Libya are stuck because of a lack of cooperation from the government of Pakistan and the Pakistani Embassy in Libya. Libyan authorities are willing to deport them back but it is very unfortunate and shocking that Pakistani authorities are not showing any willingness to take them back. The Embassy in Libya must come forward and play its part immediately to confirm the nationality, and if found Pakistani, they must be brought back home immediately. Pakistanis, whether they are inside the country or outside, are the responsibility of the state. Pakistani Embassy, Libya must do what is necessary.

The European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) and the Libyan Ministry of Interior opened today a student accommodation facility of the Specialized Training Institute of the ministry’s General Department for Security Operations. EUBAM said it supported the renovation of the facility which will host personnel under various departments of the Ministry of Interior coming from all regions of Libya.

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More than 43,000 people are still displaced amid increasingly dire reports of suicides and other mental health crises. This mental health crisis is among Derna’s most urgent needs, says Talal Burnaz the Libya Country Director at International Medical Corps, but it is also a difficult issue to address. Libya lacks trained psychologists and a culture of mental health care, he says. In Derna, families are quick to say that help is needed, but they need it "direct to the people without any middle parties," without explaining the problem exactly. But the mental health crisis continues to deepen, according to Alowami, and many among the thousands of missing people are no closer to being identified.

I’ve put their names on a list compiled by a committee in the Palestinian consulate in Benghazi dedicated to chasing those missing. Despite the instability, Libya attracts many immigrants, but identifying their bodies after the storm hit Derna has proved hard. The situation gets even more complicated for immigrants, such as Ali Ashraf, whose presence in Libya was undocumented. Undocumented migrants have fallen through the cracks. “I was one of three Egyptians who worked in the shop, and our Libyan employer paid us generously,” says Ayad over the phone.

The Tripoli based Libyan Minister of Marine Wealth, Adel Sultan, participated in the first session of the Blue Africa Summit held in the city of Tangier in Morocco from 16 to 18 November. The event, as its title suggests, was on protecting the marine environment and the blue economy and developing strategic plans for sustainable development. In his opening speech on the first day of the conference, Minister Sultan stressed the importance of the blue economy in all aspects of the economy. He also pointed out the importance of cooperation between the continents of Africa and Europe in the field of the blue economy and combating pollution of the seas and oceans. The opening was followed by technical discussions and an open dialogue on the blue economy, blue finance, ocean pollution, European-African rapprochement, and climate.

Around 160 Bangladeshi workers who remained stranded in Libya were brought back home on Wednesday morning. The government has repatriated them with the support of International Organization for Migration (IOM), according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The workers remained trapped in Benghazi and the different cities of the eastern parts of Libya following the impact of Covid-19 pandemic and political unrest. For these reasons, they were sheltered in deportation camp in Libya, the press release also added. A significant number of the returnee workers stayed in Libya for the last 7 to 12 years.

Khar - Leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) have urged the government to facilitate the repatriation of 60 young men from Bajaur currently imprisoned in Libya. The arrestees, who had been seeking better opportunities due to unemployment and poverty, were arrested in Libya several months ago while attempting to reach Europe. At a news conference in Bajaur district, PPP leaders Aurangzeb Inqilabi and Malik Saeed-ur-Rahman, accompanied by families of those arrestees, said that a local union is willing to cover the return ticket and other expenses. They appealed to the government to assist in repatriating the Bajaur tribesmen, considering the mental distress their families were enduring.

The Chairman of the Joint Libyan-Egyptian Economic Chamber and the Chairman of the Tobruk Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, Ibrahim Al-Jarari, participated last Saturday in the meeting of Libyan and Egyptian businessmen held in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in the presence of the representative of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry for Libyan affairs. The crossing process lasts for long hours without any convincing reason, he added, especially since the Libyan traveller heads to Egypt for trade, study or treatment. The traveller is committed to implementing the procedures imposed by the Egyptian authorities at the border crossing, as well as paying the fees imposed by the Egyptian side, and no violations or serious legal violations have been recorded against Libyans. Efforts are also being made to facilitate the work of Egyptian contracting and construction companies in reconstruction and infrastructure projects inside Libya, especially in cities and areas affected by last September’s Storm Daniel. Positive responseAl-Jarari stressed the positive response of the Egyptian side, including chambers of commerce, businessmen, and official bodies, with regard to facilitating transit procedures at the Salloum border crossing, and seeking with the competent Egyptian authorities to reduce the fees imposed on Libyan travellers, in addition to facilitating commercial transit movement and preventing the accumulation of goods in the Egyptian customs warehouses at the border crossing.