Infrastructure sectors discussed in this study include transportation, ICT, energy and the labour force.
3.6.1 Transportation
The transportation sector in Libya is quite developed. There are two national airline companies: Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways. In addition, there are many private airlines of which the most popular is the Al-Buraq Airlines. Foreign airlines link Libya with almost all the major cities in the world, by daily and weekly flights. Additionally, domestic flights are available between Tripoli and all the major cities. Frequently, taxis as well as bus services (both charging reasonable prices) provide transport around all the regions in the country as well as to neighbouring countries. Nevertheless, this sector faces a number of problems and obstacles. One major problem is the quality of air transportation. Libya ranks very low among the countries surveyed on air transport quality in 2013 ranked 129th
.
(The Africa Competitiveness Report, 2013).
In order to cope with these problems and barriers the Libyan government employed programmers to work on the further development and maintenance of Libya's air transport industry (Porter, 2006).
Building a new international airport in the Libyan capital started in September 2007 and was expected to welcome over 20 million travellers a year. Two billion euro was earmarked for the modernisation of other airports in the desert country. These new international airports will help to create a fundamental change in Libyan air transportation and will attract and develop air travel and cargo movement between Libya and the rest of the world. Work also also started in establishing and maintaining Libyan local road networks and the sea ports (LGPC, 2008).
3.6.2 Information Communication Technology (ICT)
Almost all communications’ services are available in the country, including mail, telephone and cordless communications. It is possible to dial almost all local
and long distance calls directly (without operator assistance). Mobile phones and internet services were introduced into the services’ network in about 1999to cover all locations in Libya.
Nonetheless, compared with other countries in the region, the Libyan ICT system needs to achieve substantial improvement. At times, Libya still suffers from a lack of speed in internet services and some chronic problems in the mobile phone network performance. Public telephones are in short supply. The mail services are now generally well organised but in some village areas they are not well organised and this sector is still under development.
Consequently, the Libyan government is implementing an expansion strategy to extend a wide range of ICT services to the whole nation. It began taking the first steps towards the development of this sector by setting up a plan to spend 10 billion USD on ICT infrastructure over the next 15 years (AIN, 2007). Heading the Libyan delegation, Deputy Minister for Communications and Informatics asked for ITU’s (International Telecommunication Union, ITU is an agency of the United Nations (UN) whose purpose is to coordinate telecommunication operations and services throughout the world) support in preparing a master plan to modernize ICT infrastructure in Libya to “not only world class level, but to world-leading standards.” He said, “The Libyan ICT sector poses several opportunities as well as challenges that can potentially result in significant economic growth, job creation, and transformation of government services, among other possible impacts.” The Libyan government has laid down a timeframe of two years to reach its objectives of modernizing the ICT sector. www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/ Last accessed 31/05/2015.
3.6.3 Energy
The main sources of energy in Libya are oil and gas. Libya depends on its own resources of these materials to satisfy the growing need for energy consumption. The Libyan government owns a national company called the General Electrical Company OF Libya (GECOL) which deals with all power supply operations. Compared to other countries in the region, the price of energy in Libya is very cheap. For example, the cost of one litre of diesel or petrol is 150 dirham which equals approximately six pence in British currency and it costs less than one penny for one kilowatt hour of electricity.
Libya's estimated total energy consumption for 2004 was 0.16% and 0.20% in 2008 of the world's energy consumption. These statistics include petroleum, dry natural, gas, coal, net hydro, nuclear, geothermal, solar, wind, wood and waste electric power. It is the fourth largest producer of electricity and the second largest consumer of power in Africa relying on an electric power production capacity of about 4.7 gigawatts (GW). In 2004, it generated 19.4 billion kilowatt- hours (Bkwh) from thermal power stations that used locally produced oil and gas. Libya had an average consumption of about 18.1 Bkwh of electricity (EIA, 2008). Libya's demand for electric power has increased rapidly over the last few decades which has resulted in the need for doubling the power generation capacity; in 2010 the demand was at 5.8 GW, and for 2020 the demand is forecast at 8 GW. Currently, Libya's power grid consists of around 8000 miles of 220-kV lines and 13000 miles of 66kV and 30kVlines. Libya is also looking at increased links with Tunisian and Egyptian power grids (GECOL, 2008).
3.6.4 Labour force
The labour force in Libya comprises about 1.3 million workers. About 31% of the work force is in industry, 27% in the services, 24% in government and 18% in agriculture. While official figures put the unemployment rate at 13%, unofficial estimates place the real rate between 35% and 40%. Foreign workers represent a significant percentage of the Libyan labour force, particularly in the services’ industries and in manual labour jobs (U.S Commercial Services, 2007). Although the Libyan labour force has a good level of education and high literacy rates, there is a shortage of the more advanced skills in the job market (Porter, 2006). In order to cope with this shortage, the Libyan Government decided to develop the education and training system to meet Libya's long and short-term strategies and, as a consequence, significant investment in the education sector has taken place in recent years. There is a significant increase in the number of students, schools, teachers and classes at all levels of education in the country. The government has also adopted a new policy to allow the education and training of their people abroad, namely in the UK, United States, Germany and France.