Libya has spent a total amount of about 51 billion Libyan Dinars (LD) on development projects from 1970 to the end of 2003, an official Libyan economic report has said.
The report which was issued in a Ministry of Planning bulletin on economic development in the country said what was actually spent in the country’s budgets over the past 40 years was LD40 billion, representing 79 per cent of the total budget allocations, adding that average spending on development projects during the said period stood at about LD4 million per day and about LD111 million per month.
The Libyan economy, the report said, achieved a 10 per cent composite growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) of the oil and gas sector and nearly 10 per cent in the non-oil sector, adding that the latter’s contribution to the GDP rose from 37 per cent in 1970 to about 41 per cent in 2003 according to the current rate.
The report pointed out that the volume of spending during the said period enabled 392 industrial projects to reach production stage, in addition to the production of 4,460 megawatts per hour (MGWPH) and 35 million cubic metres of desalinated water per annum, while oil production, which used to be 3.3 million barrels per day (bpd) dropped to 1.4 million bpd in 2003 as part of the country’s new policy of judicious tapping of its oil resources and supplying the commodity according to the demand of local and international markets.
