Libya's new economy - oil rush, lots of frozen wealth, and privatization.

[Dover]

...Tarhouni's influence over future economic policy remains to be seen but he said he would be strongly recommending a move away from an economy in which, he said, he had been surprised to find on his return home how many Libyans received state funds.

Since many of the six million population now seemed to expect their oil-rich government to increase, rather than reduce, the level of subsidies and welfare payments, the new leadership faced a challenge of managing those expectations.

"The private sector should be the engine for the future economic development of Libya," he said.

"The challenges will be to decrease the size of government and to give the private sector more room ... What makes it challenging is that right now the level of expectations of the people are very high -- and that the government will deliver more rather than less ... So it's a challenge. But Gaddafi's dead, so everything else can be managed."


more
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/10/us-libya-idUSTRE7A96A920111110

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The Libyan people had expectations of the wealth being spread around?
Maybe it hasn't yet dawned on them that they've just been robbed.
Yep, I see trouble ahead...

[marmar]

1. The Shock Doctrine playbook.

nt

[xchrom]

3. The Neo-Liberals will send their Ambassadors of Instruction.

Which will include borrowing against any future gains from oil.

[tabatha]

4. "KEEP FUNDS FROZEN"

Keib, who on Wednesday said he was anxious for Western governments to unfreeze Gaddafi-era accounts in order for him to pay former rebels demanding salaries, told reporters on Thursday that he needed another "10 days, two weeks" to announce his cabinet -- within what he called a "soft constraint" set by a timetable agreed by the National Transitional Council.

Tarhouni said he saw no difficulty in covering whatever budget was drawn up by the incoming government for next year, given the tens of billions of dollars Libya has in foreign accounts frozen as part of sanctions against Gaddafi.

But he cautioned that Libya should not seek to unblock more than it required for immediate use, since it lacked the means to monitor assets which, under the ousted administration, had been routinely pillaged by a corrupt leadership.

"We don't want this wholesale unblocking or unfreezing of assets," he said. "We cannot control and monitor these assets. These are huge assets. So, what we want to do is to have a targeted type of unblocking based on the identified needs that we have. So that's what we have been talking about.
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Did you read the article?

[xchrom]

5. Yes, tabatha, I read the article. Nothing new. Nt

[tabatha]

6. Well, your pre-judging prediction is hardly going to come true.

[xchrom]

8. We shall see. Nt

[tabatha]

9. That attitude reminds me of this

"All I need to know about Islam, I learned on 9-11-01."

[xchrom]

10. & you remind me of believing in the Tooth Fairy. Nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. 'Zactly. Written before the first freedom drones hit.

[tabatha]

2. Saif Al Gaddafi: "Arguing for aggressive privatization, he said “the state will not own anything”.

Referring to Muammar al-Qadhafi’s March 2 address to the General People’s Congress, in which he called for government restructuring and radical privatization (ref C), Saif al-Islam conceded that he had been personally involved in the work of the committees tasked with implementing his father’s vision. He emphasized that plans for restructuring the government are underway, and will involve reshaped local institutions and greater privatization. Arguing for aggressive privatization, he said “the state will not own anything” and “everything should be done by the private sector”. (Note: As reported ref C, five committees were established to formulate plans for implementing Muammar al-Qadhafi’s March 2 vision. Contacts have told us Saif al-Islam established shadow committees staffed by personnel from the Economic Development Board (EDB) and National Planning Council (NPC); the final recommendations for implementing al-Qadhafi’s vision reflected heavy input from the shadow committees. End note.) Referring obliquely to reports of fierce infighting over recommendations about restructuring and privatization, Saif al-Islam noted that “many things that were not nice” had happened in the course of recent intra-government debates, but stressed that those issues had been resolved.

Libya Wikileaks

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wikileaks-files/libya-wikileaks/8294857/SAIF-AL-ISLAM-AL-QADHAFI-CALLS-FOR-FURTHER-REFORM-THREATENS-TO-WITHDRAW-FROM-POLITICS.html