United World: To start with, how would you present Libya as tourist destination?

Dr. Aweda: I think I will start of by giving a statement on what Libya is today to dispel any misperceptions some may have about our country. Libya has a very valuable tourism product. We have beautiful beaches, archeological cities, an amazing desert as well as the attractions of modern cities. Cultural tourism is our priority. We feel that it isn't very easy to market what we have to the rest of the world because Libya is still a virgin territory to most people. It would be easy to promote the country through advertisement. However, before doing that we need to create the necessary infrastructure to receive tourists such as hotels, resorts, restaurants, and entertainment. The five-year plan defined by the Ministry of Tourism focuses on developing this infrastructure.

United World: How can foreign investors help you achieve these goals of infrastructure development?

Dr. Aweda: This is a very important point. Tourism is not a recent discovery for Libya but the sector faced a lot of changes in terms of administration and organization. In the past, Libya relied completely on the revenues coming from the oil sector and the tourism sector was massively neglected. As a result today we have count only 1,200 beds responding to international tourism standards; I am not counting the other existing accommodation possibilities, as they do not respond to those standards yet. The government has therefore set as a priority to develop tourism infrastructure. The first step in this plan was to liberalize the tourism sector, which has been materialized through law no. 7 in 2004. This law established the Ministry of Tourism as a governmental entity and to re- institutionalized the Tourism Investment & Development Board (we were established in 1998, before the ministry of tourism) The ministry started re-organizing the board, and made us responsible for technical influence in the sector, responsible for attracting investors. We drew up a small, short-term plan to relocate projects as well as determine where the investment opportunities in Libya lie. We marked all the sites that are suitable for investment along the coast, up until the Egyptian border. We are in the final stages of conducting this survey and we will soon be announcing what is available for investment to foreigners. We are being very careful in how we carry out our plans because we don't want to attract the type of mass tourism you see in Egypt or Tunisia, which could destroy a lot of the natural beauty we have or our historical heritage. When we are finished with surveying the coastal areas, we will move on to the southern parts of the country, in the desert and do the same. We are focusing on marketing, advertisement, information distribution, attending symposiums, international exhibitions etc.

United World: What image are you marketing Libya in?

Dr. Aweda: In this region, I think it is fair to say that we have the best preserved archeological sites available. We have entire ancient towns that are still standing along the coast and in the desert; you cannot find this anywhere else in North Africa. Moreover, we have no social or political struggles in the country; security is an important factor for tourists. Additionally, we have a very friendly and hospitable population. We preserve our way of doing things, in terms of not allowing modern technology to influence our architectural style. We like to use local materials for building. We act as a one-stop shop for foreign investors in the tourism sector; we are responsible for attracting them and everything else that may follow, till the day they transfer their profits outside the country. All the procedures are taken care of through this board to save them time and energy. The investor is required to make a presentation of their idea or project, for which we have a highly qualified technical committee, who go through the contents, asses the feasibility, offer their assessments to the investor, who in turn revises the project and amends it until we approve. When a contract is signed and the project is under construction, we follow-up on the progress. We have so far sealed in about 12 contracts with foreign investors in the past year and half, from the UK, Switzerland, Italy, Malaysia, France etc. In total, the contracts are worth more than $2 billion. They cover areas like Tripoli, Tajura and other areas along the coast, for resorts and hotels.

United World: What kind of investment are you looking for today from the United States?

Dr. Aweda: As you can see, the United States so far has no stake in this sector. I think it is because Americans simply don't know Libya, not just the businessmen but even the people, the potential tourists. We are extending an invitation to American investors in the tourism field because time is running out. Most of the sites available for investment are being reserved by foreign companies. We are also willing to visit them and provide them with all the information they need on this sector. We need to promote ourselves more, but we have so far not generated any serious American investors or even genuine interest from them, regarding tourism.

United World: So what kind of message would you like to send out to American investors? What would you like from them?

Dr. Aweda: We are looking for those who want to build hotels, resorts, desert camps, build up the marina, and all other types of tourism facilities. The land is cheap, so there is a lot of incentive for them to come and invest. We are also taking care of the basic infrastructure like building roads that lead to the sites that are available for development. We are looking for rich investors and rich tourists in the long-run; we want high-end tourism, not mass tourism. My message to them is just give the territory a chance and just come and check it out at the very least..