Tunis, October 23, 2016: On 18th October 2016 in Tunis, a series of workshop brought together Libyan and international economic players to discuss about how to improve access to finance for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Libya.
Topical round-tables tackled these critical issues:
- The current situation of private sector financing in Libya, involving high-level officials from the Ministry of Economy of Libya, OECD, the World Bank, and Libya Enterprises, and private sector players such as MSMEs representatives, and private banks.
- The sharing of best practices in private sector financing from Morocco, France, and Islamic finance players.
At the end of the workshop, an open discussion will take stock of these debates and identify with all stakeholders a series of concrete actions to be rapidly initiated and conducted in the medium term.
This workshop was organized by Expertise France in the framework of the Support to Libya for Economic Integration, Diversification and Sustainable Development (SLEIDSE) programme. This 4-year programme funded by the European Union aims to promote the development of a dynamic and diversified MSME private sector, capable of creating employment and livelihoods for the youth and the women in Libya.
Many Middle East and North African countries have succeeded in channeling bank financing to MSMEs by setting up a formal credit agency, which Libya tried in 2008 when establishing the Libyan Guarantee Lending Fund under the oversight of the Ministry of Economy and Support, and Libya Enterprise. However, to date, this experience has shown limited results and does not meet the needs of the private sector, which would be a key trigger towards sustainable economic recovery.
“We sincerely hope that this workshop will be a solid contribution to far-reaching decisions and that it will trigger a momentum for the development of private sector in Libya”, says Alexandre Chatillon-Mounier, Project manager for Expertise France and Head of the SLEIDSE programme.
Expertise France is the French public agency for international technical assistance. It aims at contributing to sustainable development based on solidarity and inclusiveness, mainly through enhancing the quality of public policies within the partner countries. Expertise France designs and implements cooperation projects addressing skills transfers between professionals. The agency also develops integrated offers, assembling public and private expertise in order to respond to the partner countries’ needs.
Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)
