Gaddafi threatens seizure of foreign businesses as GRTU appeals for loan guarantees on Maltese investments

Concerns that Maltese businesses may be taken over by Libyan government forces and authorities, which are still in control of Tripoli, were made clear to Lawrence Gonzi by business directors who were reportedly called by Libyan officials.

MaltaToday was informed that Gonzi had communicated his concerns on a forced nationalisation of businesses ‘left behind’ by Maltese evacuees.

The Prime Minister will be holding a meeting with business owners at Castille on Friday. Gonzi is said to be now securing new ways of softening the impact of the Libyan unrest on the Maltese economy, which is why he convened a meeting of the Malta Council Economic and Social Development on Monday.

Gonzi warned that the situation in Libya could have a serious impact on Malta’s economy, and said this week that the MCESD would be working to offset that blow.

“Now that we have successfully lived through the first phase,” he said, referring to the evacuation of Maltese citizens working in Libya, “we can determine measures to bring the Maltese people out of this crisis.”

The erratic behaviour of Libyan government officials and that of Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi is well known. In 2009, Libya threatened to nationalise the Libyan operations of PetroCanada, a Canadian oil and gas company, after Canada’s foreign minister said he would give Gaddafi a “public tongue-lashing” over Libya’s decision to greet the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi as a hero on his release.

The situation was made worse when Col Gaddafi and his 130-strong delegation were handed tourist visas by Canada for a stopover in Newfoundland on a return flight from addressing the United Nations in New York.

Within days, the head of Libya’s state-owned National Oil Company had contacted the chairman of PetroCanada “with a threat to nationalise the company’s operations in Libya if the Canadian Government did not offer a formal apology”.

Another row blew up when Swiss authorities arrested Gaddafi’s son Hannibal in Switzerland in 2008 after claims that he had assaulted members of his staff. The decision prompted an 18-month long diplomatic stand-off, with the ending of direct flights between the two countries, commercial co-operation being “wound down” and two Swiss businessmen being arrested on alleged visa and tax irregularities.

Maenwhile, GRTU boss Vince Farrugia has called on government to guarantee loans granted to businesses with investments in Libya, and for banks to be more flexible with their clients.

Farrugia, who has set up a task-force within his organisation to assist Maltese companies with Libyan investments in the wake of the current uprising, has appealed to government to “focus on helping these businesses which may have problems with the banks. I am urging the government to act as it did during the banking crisis and guarantee these business loans,” he told The Times.

He added that while government responded well to the global banking crisis by guaranteeing people’s deposits, “it should adopt a similar strategy.”

Farrugia appealed to banks to be more flexible and not to tighten their belts on businesses who are facing serious problems in the crisis.