São Paulo – Libya, an Arab country in North Africa, has US$ 50.5 billion invested outside the country. This information was disclosed by African news agency Panapress and is part of a report by the Libyan Foreign Investment Agency. According to the news agency, a large part of the funds are in bank accounts or invested in stock markets and funds.
Of this total, investment in stock markets and investment funds are US$ 6.2 billion. Libyan investment in Africa, according to the document, is around US$ 5.8 billion. The country plans to increase the capital of companies acquired on the continent, says the Libyan Foreign Investment Authority.
The government of Libya recently announced that it plans to invest US$ 500 million in South America and, according to the country’s deputy prime minister, Imbarek Ashamikh, part of the funds should be turned to Brazil, mainly in the Agribusiness area. Ashamikh visited the country to learn about opportunities in the area this month.
Libya has one of the largest Gross Domestic Products (GDPs) in Africa and a large part of the country revenues are connected to oil. The country’s exports are 95% focussed on oil products, totalling 1.4 million barrels of oil a day. The National Oil Company has as its target almost doubling the country’s oil production from the current 1.8 million barrels a day to 3 million barrels a day by 2012.
The country has been attracting foreign investment in the oil area, but is also working on diversifying its economy, investing, for example, in agriculture. Currently, however, due to the climate difficulties and the arid soil for plantations, the Libyans import around 75% of the food they consume. Agriculture answers to 1.5% of the country’s GDP and industry to 61.7%.
*Translated by Mark Ament
