Recently-listed Dubai contractor Drake & Scull International is setting up a Libyan unit this year, its second venture in Africa, as it expands abroad and weathers a downturn at home.

The United Arab Emirates' construction sector is suffering a sharp slowdown, with Dubai particularly hard hit, as developers halt or postpone projects and thousands of jobs are slashed.

"We are in the process of establishing Drake & Scull Libya," Tawfiq Abu Soud, an executive director at Drake said at a conference organised by London-based MEED magazine in Abu Dhabi. "The prospects there are good, they need infrastructure ... power, water, utilities."

Libya, with a population of 5 million and the biggest oil reserves in Africa, is undertaking a $126.5 billion five-year infrastructure redevelopment plan to modernise water and sanitation facilities and build airports, schools and houses. Reuters