About 80 French companies, including the likes of oil major Total, cement maker Lafarge and engineering group Alstom, met Libyan ministers, officials and company executives during a one-day trip to Tripoli Wednesday.
Speaking to Reuters, Lellouche said that he hoped France could in the short term balance the Gadhafi-era trade gap, which saw French imports from Libya worth 5 billion euros compared with exports to Libya of just 1 billion euros.
“With the sympathy for France and the needs Libya has, we should be able to increase our presence in this country,” Lellouche, who led the delegation, said in an interview.
“We were very far behind the Italians and Chinese. We should, I hope, catch up on them or even overtake them ,” he said, declining to give a time frame.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy spearheaded military intervention in the OPEC member country and France’s top firms will now be eager to capitalize on the positive sentiment toward Paris among Libya’s new leaders.
Lellouche said the French companies, which included about 40 small-to-medium size businesses, were broken up into 11 priority clusters ranging from banking to health, security and oil.
“Libya needs everything and our companies must find a major place in this process, that is my objective,” Lellouche said.
As part of developing relationships Paris will open a trade office in the Libyan capital in January.
Lellouche said he did not believe the change from the NTC government – due to take place once fighting in Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte ends – would have any impact on French business interests and said that the sympathy for France among the Libyan population was undeniable.
“Nevertheless, we have to be competitive. I didn’t ask for any specific favors,” he said, adding it was imperative to help diversify the country’s economy for the long term.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/Middle-East/2011/Oct-15/151337-french-firms-travel-to-libya-seeking-deals-trade-minister.ashx#ixzz1arLDJxGW
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
