Resort deal could spur Libya tourism
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By Matthew Garrahan in London and Anna Fifield in Tripoli
Financial Times 11 May 2004
A British company has been enlisted to design a luxury coastal resort in Libya. The proposed complex at Sidi Benure will cost between £70m and £120m.
It is being designed by WS Atkins, the company behind the Burj Al Arab tower hotel and the Jumeirah Beach in Dubai, developments popular with British tourists.
Libya hopes British tourists will soon be visiting the country in large numbers - a prospect that would have been unthinkable before the recent thaw in diplomatic relations between the two countries.
However, with US trade sanctions against Libya also set to be lifted, attention has turned to the county's potential as a tourist destination.
The Sidi Benure resort will be positioned as a luxury resort on the Mediterranean but will also be marketed to professional football clubs as a potential site for summer training camps.
British businesses seeking business opportunities at the "Doing Business in Libya" conference in Tripoli this week have spoken privately of the difficulties in winning contracts.
Britain and Libya have renewed commercial ties with remarkable speed since Colonel Muammer Gadaffi agreed to scrap the country's weapons of mass destruction in December.
Mike O'Brien, trade minister, and representatives from companies including Shell and BAE Systems, the defence contractor, met Libyan ministers on Tuesday in Tripoli, the capital.
But despite its rapid movement in from the economic cold, Libya is still considered relatively dysfunctional both economically and politically.
BAE Systems is understood to be having problems finalising contracts to rebuild Tripoli airport and manage air traffic. A person close to the talks said the process had been difficult.
This was echoed by others at the conference. "When Blair met Gadaffi it was quite clear that he was making a political commitment to do business with UK Ltd," said one business executive. "The problem we are having is translating that commitment into a real contract."
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