Libya is still a traditional cash-driven economy. ATMs are relatively few in number; those that work even fewer. It is the same with electronic points of sale (POS) in stores and businesses. E-payments are the exception, not the rule when Libyans go shopping. But that is changing – and changing fast. So say both Alsanussi Abukhzam, general manager of Moamalat, the public-sector financial services company providing e-services in Libya, and Hani Alsaoudi, sales manager at its private-sector rival, Tadawul. Driving growth for both is competition between them and, more importantly, changes in the regulations. Read more from the Libya Herald.

Libya’s central bank governor Sadiq Al-Kabir said Libya needs to boost oil production to enact sweeping development plans and diversify an economy heavily reliant on energy exports. Output needs to be at least 1.4 million barrels per day “if we want to make a shift in Libya’s economy,” Sadiq Al-Kabir told Bloomberg from the capital, Tripoli. The North African nation is currently pumping about 1.2 million, which he described as not enough to cover hikes in government spending should crude prices fall below $70 a barrel. More oil income would allow Libya to “expand development and infrastructure projects, stimulate the private sector and diversify the economy and sources of income,” the governor said, without elaborating. Read more from Bloomberg.

Senior officials representing Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States met to discuss the situation in Libya. They underlined the need for unified international support for Libya in overcoming the current political impasse. They welcomed the new UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Libya and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, and reiterated support for an UN-facilitated, Libyan-led, and owned process that enables Libya to hold credible, transparent, and inclusive presidential and parliamentary elections in the shortest possible time. Read more from the British Embassy in Libya.

The Libyan Ministry of Economy and Commerce enacted Decree 944/2022 on the Participation of Foreigners, Branches and Representative Offices of Foreign Companies in Libya (Decree 944/2022). Decree 944/2022 upholds the principle that any commercial activity in Libya requires the establishment of a presence – either through setting up a joint venture with a Libyan partner, or through registering a branch or representative office. Decree 944/2022 has also updated the prerequisites and capitalization requirements for establishing a presence in Libya. Most importantly Decree 944/2022 raises the permitted foreign participating in Libyan companies to 75% (and, with the permission of the Ministry, to 89%). Read more from Lexology.

In an interview in Cairo, United States Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf addressed the situation in Libya and clarified that while there is a diversion over Egypt’s stance on the UAE and Turkey-backed head of the Libyan Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Dbaiba, “there is a commonality on strategic objectives.” Leaf added, “We politely disagree [with Egypt’s stance on Dbaiba], but we don’t think that this is ultimately the decisive factor. The end game is getting the 3 million who registered to vote the opportunity to elect a unified government for the first time in a decade….We will find a way to leverage our different views. I told Egyptian officials that we see a responsibility to get as many of us, the foreign countries that have an interest in Libya, aligned so that [special representative for the secretary general in Libya Abdoulaye] Bathily can do his work.” Read more from Mada Masr.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres today announced the appointment of Abdoulaye Bathily of Senegal as his Special Representative for Libya and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL). He previously served as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) (2013-2014), and as Special Representative for Central Africa and Head of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA) in Gabon (2014-2016). In 2018, he was appointed as Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Madagascar and in 2019 as an Independent Expert for the strategic review of the United Nations Office for West Africa. Mr. Bathily held various ministerial positions in the Senegalese Government, notably as Senior Minister in the Office of the President in charge of African Affairs. Read more from UNSMIL.