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Global banks to line up for Libya (7 Days, 26th February, 2007)

Thirty years after officially proclaiming itself socialist, Libya is gradually opening up its banking system with a string of privatisations in the works and the establishment of foreign banks. After mending its ties with the West and shaking off sanctions that made it a 'pariah' state for the best part of three decades, Moamer Kadhafi's 'Jamahiriya' or 'state of the masses' is jumping on the bandwagon of economic reform and globalisation.

Neither he nor Seif al-Islam - Kadhafi's London-educated son and heir apparent - have publicly announced liberalism as the regime's new doctrine, but the first privatisation is already under way. In late January, the Central Bank of Libya announced its intention to sell a minority stake in one of the north African country's five state-owned commercial banks - Sahara Bank - to a 'leading international financial institution'.

And last week Seif al-Islam announced plans to privatise the country's mobile phone sector as part of a programme of wider economic reforms. For the banking privatisations, the central bank said that the move was part of "a comprehensive strategy to modernise the financial sector which calls for a progressive opening of the Libyan financial market to both domestic and foreign investors".