It has been a busy business summer in the UK as far as Libya is concerned.

First, on 20th July the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, Prince Andrew, Duke of York met at London’s St James’s Palace with the head of the Libyan African Investment Portfolio (LAIP) Mr. Bashir Salah, together with reportedly about 100 top UK companies.

The LAIP and its subsidiaries have investment funds of up to US$ 8 bn concentrating mainly on investing in Africa. Over the last few years they have invested in numerous African projects ranging from telecoms, mining, tourism, real estate to manufacturing. These are spread over numerous African states ranging from the Gambia in the east, to Ethiopia in the west and to Zambia and South Africa in the South.

The LAIP and its subsidiaries are looking to increase their total investments and the number of investment projects, and are actively seeking potential joint venture partners. This policy of increased investment into Africa is part of Libya’s general diversification policy, and part of its plan to consolidate its role as the investment gateway into the rest of Africa.

On the one hand, Libya is diversifying its investments by not looking only North when it comes to Sovereign Wealth Fund investments. Libya is actively encouraging the rest of the world not to view Africa as too risky to invest in, and hence is prepared to take the lead in joint venture investment into sub-Saharan Africa.

Secondly, Wilton Park organized at its stately venue its regular conference on Libya from 20th to 23rd July entitled ‘Libya investing at home, investing abroad: managing resources for future development’.

This conference leans more towards general policy discussion, direction and analyses, and provided an open forum for discussions between analysts, academics, and business people interested in Libya.

Thirdly, the Middle East Association (MEA) – a regular visitor to Libya - organized on 23rd July in London a conference specifically on Libya entitled ‘Libya Opportunity and Challenge 3’.

As the title implies, this is the third consecutive year that this conference promoting Libya has been organised by the MEA.

This event has established itself as the Libya business investment event in the UK over the last three years.

Its importance can be gauged by its official sponsors, which were: the UK Trade & Investment, the Libyan British Business Council, the Tripoli Chamber of Commerce, the Libyan Businessmen’s Council, the Libyan People’s Bureau in London and the British Embassy in Tripoli.

This event was very well attended by a wide spectrum of businesses of various sizes all eager to learn more about business opportunities in Libya. These included banking and finance, legal accounting and taxation, oil and gas, education and training, health and construction.

The presentation by Dr Mahmoud Al-Ftesi, the head of Libya’s Privatisation and Investment Board (PIB) (formerly the LFIB and then LIB) at the conference was rather important. He spoke of the ongoing open door policy and invited all potential investors into Libya to come directly to their Dahra-based offices.

So, all-in-all, while the rest of the world has been struggling to come to terms with the global economic recession, it has been a very busy and productive business summer as far as investing in Libya is concerned.

These series of well attended events are further proof that investors are still very keen to enter the Libyan market.

Equally, this proactive participation by the Libyan side also shows that Libya is keen to retain and develop its position in the investment limelight. This is important, because as the global recession recedes competitors for investment will re-emerge.