TRIPOLI - Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi has called for the wholesale privatisation of the country's vital oil and other industries, which were nationalised when he seized power in 1969, reports said Saturday.
| That's because he pissed away all the money... |
In a speech to parliament Friday, Kadhafi said the public sector had failed and should be abolished, including in the oil industry, "which is the basis of Libya's wealth." He called for companies to be formed "which would not be the property of the state but of Libyans," who could call on foreign experts to help run them, in order to "develop the oil industry, from prospection to production and marketing." Similar measures should be applied to the country's banks, airports, road and "other public enterprises," he said.
| By Jove! I think he's got it! Catches on quick, doesn't he? It's only been... ummm... 34 or 40 years. |
Oil accounts for nearly 90 percent of Libya's resources. Its production quota set by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) stands at 1.3 million barrels a day. Kadhafi slammed the "irresponsibility" of civil servants, accusing the public sector of wasting billions of dollars and warning that the economy would collapse if it were maintained. "The public sector needs people with a high level of expertise, patriotism and unshakeable morality", he said, adding that the state-run economy had failed in the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe because it relied on "incompetent functionaries who cared nothing for the national interest."
| Money is power. It doesn't matter if it's other people's money, as long as it's your power... |
Libya announced in January last year its intention to open up the tightly controlled economy. Five months later it launched an ambitious 35 billion dollar three-year investment plan, to include a high proportion of foreign capital, particularly in the oil and other industrial sectors.
| So here's your chance. If you trust Muammar not to change his mind again in six months. |
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