Multi-billion-dollar reconstruction projects await in post-w… – MENAFN.COM

Multi-billion-dollar reconstruction projects await in post-w… – MENAFN.COM

A decade after Libya descended into chaos, a host of countries are eyeing potential multi-billion-dollar infrastructure projects in the oil-rich nation if stability is assured. Economist Kamal Mansouri expects Libya's reconstruction drive to be one of the biggest in the Middle East and North Africa. He estimates "more than 100 billion dollars" are needed to rebuild Libya, which has been gripped by violence and political turmoil since dictator Moamer Kadhafi was toppled in a 2011 uprising. Former colonial power Italy, neighbouring Egypt and Turkey are tipped to be awarded the lion's share of reconstruction deals. In the capital Tripoli, dozens of rusted cranes and unfinished buildings dot the seafront, testimony to hundreds of abandoned projects worth billions of dollars launched between 2000 and 2010. After Kadhafi's overthrow, Libya fell under the control of a complex, ever-shifting patchwork of militias and foreign mercenaries backing rival administrations. While Turkey has supported the Tripoli government, eastern-based strongman Khalifa Haftar, who battled but failed to seize the capital, has had the backing of Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. But a UN-backed ceasefire was agreed last October, paving the way for the establishment in March of an interim administration. The new government led