Libya's path from desert to modern country – complete with ice rink

“It takes a long time to move on,” Ms. Ahmeda says, “but we’re moving fast now.”

The changes aren’t just limited to Tripoli.

In Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, two government-funded housing projects consisting of 20,000 units, costing approximately $4.8 billion, are half way to completion. At the Ghanfuda New Town site, eight miles south of the center of the city, row upon row of apartment block frames jut out of the desert. American AECOM and South Korean HanmiParsons manage the site, while China State Construction Company handles the building. To meet the needs of the 15,000 apartments and 5,000 villas, the group constructed their own concrete factories.

Oil exports account for 70 percent of GDP

Much of the new growth is fueled by Libya’s vast oil reserves. Before international sanctions, Libya exported 3 billion barrels per day. Today, the country produces 1.5 billion barrels per day – the maximum allowed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), with reserves to last 45 years at current rates, according to information provided by the National Oil Corporation (NOC).

The export of hydrocarbons accounts for 70 percent of the gross domestic product and provides 90 percent of the government’s revenue. By 2016, NOC chairman Shokri Ghanem says, they hope to boost oil exports to 2.4 billion barrels per day.

Libya’s economic expansion is not without its pitfalls. As in other countries with oil-based economies, volatile crude prices and the economic downturn have reduced growth. Libya’s GDP contracted from 114 billion dinars in 2008 to a projected 95.7 billion dinars in 2010, according to IMF estimates.

Share the wealth?

To combat income disparity and alleviate the growing pains of privatization, the Libyan government has set up social fund to provide 222,000 families approximately $377 dollars per month from investment funds financed by oil profits.

Libya’s small population of 6.2 million makes income distribution in the oil-wealthy state easier than most, but some say it’s still not enough. “There is money, but not for me,” says a taxi driver in Tripoli who did not want to be named. “There is no work, except driving this taxi.... They [the government] take the money.”

A case-study for Iran, North Korea

The overall success of Libyan reintegration has prompted American policymakers to make a case for the use of sanctions to pressure other countries with nuclear ambitions, such as Iran and North Korea.

“We’d like to be able to use the example of Libya as one which can be kind of applied to other instances,” says US ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz, whose arrival here in April 2008 reestablished US diplomatic relations after nearly four decades. He says the Libyan case can serve as an example to show that countries can gain from renouncing their nuclear ambitions.

“You can benefit by giving up your WMD you don’t have to go that route, there is a way back into the international community.”

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