Efforts to facilitate trade between Malta and Libya intensified

Efforts to assist and facilitate trade promotion between Malta and Libya have been intensified, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said.

It said in a statement that the commercial section of Malta’s Embassy in Tripoli, which was also the representative office of Malta Enterprise in Libya, last year intensified its efforts to strengthen its network and activities at a time when the Libyan economy was passing through great changes.

This offered good prospects of an expansion of two-way trade and investment between Malta and Libya, the ministry said.

It said that besides a number of fact finding missions to various Libyan cities, the office coordinated the participation of Maltese companies to a number of fairs, organised more than 40 trade missions to Libya and co-organised a Libyan-led trade mission to Malta together with the Libyan Business Council.

A further 300 specific information requests from Maltese and Libyan businessmen were received and a further 150 detailed requests were made on specialised sectors.

The ministry said that in an effort to facilitate and promote trade and commercial contacts between the two countries, Malta’s Consulate in Tripoli regularly issued multiple-entry visas for Libyan business people to travel to Malta to establish contacts and follow-up business with their Maltese counterparts.

It also worked to ensure that the efficient manner with which Libyan businessmen were issued with multiple entry visas to visit Malta was fully reciprocated by Libya with the subject being brought up several times during high level visits.

Bilateral talks on this issue are due to be held in Malta early this year.