 Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has scolded his nation for over-reliance on oil, foreigners and imports and called for the manufacture of things people need. The criticisms, in an unusual series of speeches in July and August, have stirred keen interest in a forthcoming annual September 1 address to the nation of 5 million marking the 1969 coup d'etat that brought him to power. | “We don't produce anything. We sell only oil and consume everything...” |
"We don't produce anything. We sell only oil and consume everything," he said, condemning what he said was a consumer society destined for a sorry future when oil finally runs out. "The kind of trade in which you produce nothing and import goods in exchange for oil, it's a catastrophe," the Libyan news agency quoted him as saying. Libya could have become an economic power like Japan were it not "socially backward", he said.
| “Libya could have become an economic power like Japan were it not 'socially backward'...” |
Reformist rhetoric is nothing new from Gaddafi, but Libyans say it is unusual for such speeches to be made so frequently and to such a wide variety of audiences from professional groups and state planners to teachers and religious students. The flurry of stern commentaries suggests his September 1 address may unveil further reforms to modernise the country. Experts say there is real hope the non-oil sector of the economy may finally be on the mend in a country long enfeebled by international sanctions and suffering serious unemployment.
 Two factors, one foreign and one domestic, mean Libya has a chance to diversify its old-fashioned command economy, long hobbled by a primitive banking sector and red tape, experts say. The foreign factor is the revival of diplomatic relations with Washington: On May 15, the Bush administration said it would restore formal ties with Tripoli as a reward for Libya's scrapping of its weapons of mass destruction programme.
| AoS note 13:40 CDT: Fembot provided as requested. You ask, we deliver. |
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