Category: Business

Tripoli- The Ministry of Economy and Trade of the Government of National Unity issued a decision to form a committee for halal commodities and food products headed by the Undersecretary for Economic Affairs at the Ministry and his deputy and with the membership of eight others.

The committee will establish an integrated mechanism for the control of food products and commodities to ensure their compliance with the requirements of Islamic Sharia and establish controls to regulate the import process, traceability, examination and accreditation of Halal certification bodies.

It will also submit a proposal for the technical standard requirements for halal products that can be applied within the Libyan standard specifications and standards, determining the stages of controlling halal products and goods, and defining the responsibilities of each legal entity in accordance with the legislation in force.

According to the decision, the committee to provide a mechanism for cooperation between the private and public sectors in the context of consumer protection, regulation, control and quality control of food products and commodities in local markets in accordance with public health and environmental considerations and the requirements of Islamic law. The committee is also in charge of evaluating the slaughterhouses that are allowed to supply their products to the local markets through a set of controls and standards necessary to ensure that slaughterhouses adhere to the application of halal slaughter standards and the provision of health requirements for food safety.

It is also concerned with setting controls and a mechanism for the adoption of slaughterhouses inside and outside the Libyan state to achieve the highest rates of food safety and security and to enhance societal awareness of sound food practices in accordance with Islamic Sharia. According to the decision of its establishment, the committee will organize workshops to discuss the halal goods and products supplied to the local market, and will review the experiences of Arab and Islamic countries in the field of legislation, control systems and implementation mechanisms.

Source: Libyan News Agency

Central African ministers meeting in Cameroon have agreed to merge two regional blocs in a move to boost trade and growth. The 11-member Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) will join with the six-member Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC). The deal aims to eliminate rivalry that has helped to make central Africa the poorest region among Africa’s economic groups.

Central African economy ministers say they want to foster regional integration, accelerate economic transformation and facilitate development by merging the two economic blocs.

Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad are members of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, or CEMAC, while the Economic Community of Central African States, ECCAS, is made up of all CEMAC member states plus Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe.

Charles Assamba Ongodo heads the unit of a pilot committee created by central African heads of state to merge CEMAC and ECCAS.

Ongodo said having one economic bloc instead of two will reduce administrative duplication and associated costs.

“The sub-region will be more integrated, more competitive, efficient and strong enough to compete with the other regions. We have some countries that are stronger in central Africa that could push the rest,” said Ongodo.

ECCAS was created in 1983 to reduce inequality and poverty in central Africa. Central African leaders created CEMAC about a decade later, launching it in 1999 for the same purpose.

The African Union reports that free movement of people and goods remains a dream in a majority of central African states. The absence of a functioning common market and customs union envisaged by Central African leaders when they created the two structures has further deepened poverty.

Moise Taboue, one of the pilot committee’s consultants, says the effects of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine underscore the need for central Africa to merge its two economic structures and focus on its development.

Taboue said central African states produce about 5% of pharmaceutical products they need and spend $269 million to import pharmaceutical products from Europe each year despite their huge potential. He said the over-dependency of central African states on imports is responsible for hardships among civilians caused by scarcity and spiraling food and commodity prices since Russia launched its war in Ukraine in February of this year.

Taboue said most of the region’s civilians live on less than $1 a day while 40% of the population suffer from hunger in the midst of plenty. He blamed the situation on regional government officials whom he said consider integration as a threat to each country’s sovereignty.

Together, ECCAS and CEMAC constitute a market of more than 240 million inhabitants and is the least integrated region in Africa, according to the African Union.

Cross-border business among central African states is estimated at less than 5% against a continental average of about 20 percent. The region lacks developed land, air and sea communication, which constitutes an enormous obstacle to integration.

The ministers meeting in Cameroon on Wednesday said the two blocs will be merged before the end of 2023.

Source: Voice of Americas

(Lana) an extended meeting, held yesterday at the office of Transportation Ministry in Tripoli, was devoted to discussing difficulties that impede the functioning of land ports and mechanisms to overcome them ,to ensure the provision of best services.

The meeting included GNU Minister of Transportation Mohammed Al-Shhoubi ,the general managers of the Ministry’s Land Ports Operation Management Center, and the directors of the land ports (Ghadames, Amsaed, Al-Sara, Ras Jdaire, Wazen, Al-Thum, Ghat and Al-Awainat).

The participants in the meeting discussed mechanisms of developing performance of the ports and following up workflow ,through a plan aiming to raise the efficiency of workers and developing and improving their performance.

Source: Libyan News Agency

Two invasive species — the brown tree snake and the American bullfrog — cost the world more than $16 billion between 1986 and 2020, according to a study.

Researchers say the already-hefty price tag should be seen as a lower limit on the true cost of invasive reptiles and amphibians, especially in under-studied regions such as Africa and South America. The study results were published in the online journal Scientific Reports.

Invasive species are animals, plants or other living things that aren’t native to the places where they live and damage their new environments. Humans spread many of the more than 340 invasive reptile and amphibian species — as stowaways in cargo or through the exotic pet trade, for instance.

Invasive reptiles and amphibians can damage crops, destroy infrastructure, spread disease and upset ecosystems. The damage is costly, but scientists still don’t fully understand the extent of the economic impact wrought by invasive species.

For the study, biologist and study author Ismael Soto of the University of South Bohemia, and Ceske Budejovice in the Czech Republic, and his colleagues, estimated the global cost of invasive reptiles and amphibians using a database called InvaCost. The database collects the results of thousands of studies, reports and other documents produced by scientists, governments and non-governmental organizations.

The data revealed that invasive reptiles and amphibians have cost at least $17 billion worldwide between 1986 and 2020.

“But this cost mostly focused on two species — the brown tree snake [and] the American bullfrog,” Soto told VOA in an interview via Zoom. “But there are almost 300 invasive species of reptiles [and] amphibians. So, this means that our cost is really underestimated.”

The two species have received a disproportionate amount of attention from researchers, said economist Shana McDermott of Trinity University, who was not involved in the study.

“When you talk about invasives, people immediately will probably say, ‘Oh, the brown tree snake,’ just because its impacts are so wide-ranging,” she said via Zoom. “It’s got ecosystem biodiversity impacts. It’s got impacts to human health — it sends people to the hospital every year with bites. It takes down energy infrastructure. … And so, of course, people are like, ‘Oh God! That’s an incredibly dangerous invasive! Let’s understand it better.'”

The research bias toward a few well-known species also skews the distribution of costs worldwide. For instance, 99.6% of the $10.4 billion in costs from reptile invasions were in Oceania and the Pacific Islands, largely reflecting damage dealt by the brown tree snake in Hawaii, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands. Likewise, most damage from amphibians was in Europe.

But that doesn’t mean invasive reptiles and amphibians aren’t problematic elsewhere. Soto said there are many invasive amphibians in Africa, but their costs probably haven’t been quantified.

“There’s not enough research in these countries [to] detect the economic costs,” he said.

Soto also noted that the current cost estimate only includes costs that are easily quantified. Destroyed crops or property are easier to count than reduced quality of life or indirect damage to human health and assigning dollar values to ecological damage is trickier still, McDermott said.

“We’re still in this very early stage of trying to understand the economic costs, and trying to understand how invasive species impact ecosystems, how they impact people’s quality of life,” she said, adding that she wants to include the price of biodiversity losses in future cost estimates.

Soto and McDermott agreed that future studies should not only quantify the costs of more species in more regions but also project how the costs will evolve with time, especially as climate change continues to facilitate the spread of more invasive species.

“There is a lot still left to be determined. … I do think that quantifying it is the first step, though,” said McDermott. “Unless you can put a dollar value on it, unfortunately, you don’t get [policymakers’] attention for policy. So, this is an incredibly important topic. … We really shouldn’t be waiting on more studies to act.”

Source: Voice of America

Tripoli- The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Oil Corporation, Farhat bin Qadara, revealed that crude oil production in Libya rose to one million and 25 thousand barrels per day, after it decreased as a result of the closure of oil facilities last April.

Bin Qadara expected, in Monday’s statements, that production would reach 1.2 million barrels per day within 10 days, as it was 870,000 barrels per day a week ago, and 1.3 million barrels per day before the closure.

In mid-July, the National Oil Corporation announced the resumption of production and export of crude oil in a number of oil fields and ports, three months after their closure

Source: Libyan News Agency

WASHINGTON— Kenya has secured the immediate release of Ksh 27.8 billion ($235.6 million) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to shore up its budgetary needs.

The loan which is the third review under the 38-month arrangement with the lender was approved Monday by the IMF Executive Board and brings the total amount disbursed to Ksh 142.7 billion ($1.2 billion).

Under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangements reached between Kenya and the IMF in April last year , Kenya is entitled to receive a total of Ksh 276 billion ($2.34 billion) within a three year period.

“Kenya’s economic programme supported by the Fund’s Extended Fund Facility and the Extended Credit Facility arrangements is providing an essential policy anchor to debt sustainability and public confidence. Despite the resilient economic recovery, the programme remains subject to downside risks, including from deeper disruptions from the war in Ukraine, unsettled global market conditions, and an increase of food insecurity. In this context, the authorities’ continued steadfast commitment to prudent policies and advancing structural reforms remains essential to maintain macroeconomic stability and safeguard Kenya’s positive medium-term prospects,” said Antoinette Sayeh, IMF Deputy Managing Director.

Despite giving a favourable outlook in the medium-term, IMF projects a GDP growth of 5.7pc this year dented by rising inflation which is projected to ease in 2023, uncertainties from the Russia-Ukraine war, continuing drought in the semi-arid regions, unsettled global financial market conditions and the coming general election slated for Aug 9.

While there has been a strong performance in revenue collection which has support fuel subsidy programmes to cushion vulnerable groups, IMF warns that the measures should be within budget.

“Strong fiscal performance is providing a welcome resilience. Although the authorities are adjusting domestic fuel prices to international levels more gradually, program targets are still being met thanks to strong tax revenues. Nevertheless, more targeted programs to support vulnerable households should accompany the ongoing review of the fuel pricing mechanism and plans for reforms to ensure that pricing actions are always aligned to the approved budget,” added Sayeh.

IMF is also advising the National Treasury to sustain fiscal consolidation efforts through efficient spending and additional tax measures to reduce debt vulnerabilities and release fund needed for social and development spending.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK