Qathafi calls for fundamental economic reforms
Libya, Politics, 6/14/2003

The Libyan mass media said yesterday that Libya's Leader of the Revolution Colonel Muammar al Qathafi urged for the implementation of fundamental reforms in his country's economy, in order to reach what he called "people's capital," calling for the abrogation of the public sector.

The Libyan news agency said that Qathafi called for the "abrogation of the public sector because this sector needs people of high qualifications, having a strong national commitment and care to preserve the interests of the society.."

Qathafi added that this system has failed the same as happened in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe because it depended on "unqualified employees who do not care about their country's interests."

He confirmed that economy has no place for sentiments and niceties. Therefore , this sector has to be reviewed, as "there is no one that understands it in Libya." He called for "the need to clarify this matter to the masses of the Basic Peoples Congresses, so that these congresses take the right decision in this respect. If the sector remains as it is , this would inflict serious damages on the Libyan economy. This would in turn squander the public funds and would corrupt production."

In his speech to the General Peoples Congress, Qathafi stressed "the need to avoid capitalism and exploitation, in case the public sector is cancelled. He re-affirmed the need to establish peoples socialism, or even peoples capitalism," the official news agency said.

The leader indicated that the cancellation of the public sector includes oil, which is the major source of wealth in Libya. Oil has to be the possession of the society. It has to be managed by non-state owned companies, but owned by the Libyans, in partnership.

Qathafi added "it is not necessary that Libyan owners of these companies to run them by themselves, and that they can assign any foreign expert to run these companies in a way to guarantee the promotion of oil industry including exploration, production and marketing."

The Libyan leader said "He revealed that the same thing applies for the banks. Banks must be transformed into libyan public ownership. Banks should no longer stay as state owned. Any bank should be possessed by some Libyans. They are to select the administration. They have to shoulder the responsibility of profits and losses. The same thing goes as well for airports, roads and other public utilities run by the state. He indicated that the management style of these utilities has to be collective and this is not considered exploitation or capitalism, as the income from these utilities goes to those who run these utilities and services such as roads, airports, banks, factories , oil and others."

Qathatfi said "that Libyan oil exports are well known to everyone as well as its prices. With simple arithmetics, we could know Libyan annual income of this wealth. The Libyans are free to use this wealth. They could distribute it amnongst families equally, or could deposit it in escrow accounts to use in the development of Libyan economy."

Qathatfi said "In that manner all problems related to the stockpiling overcapacity production become a thing of the past. The responsibility of marketing concerns the owners of factories or utilities, which were formerly owned by the state."

Previous Stories:
  Qathafi meets with Burkina Faso President   (6/13/2003)
  Sudanese- Libyan borders closed   (6/6/2003)
  Libya severs relations with Iraq   (6/2/2003)

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