Losses of Chinese Companies in Libya Overestimated

It's now being recommended that Chinese companies which had been operating in Libya begin negotiations 1 with the new Transitional government to recoup the roughly 20-billion US dollars lost because of the civi war.

CRI's Su Yi has more.

 

In Libya, 75 Chinese companies, including 13 state-owned enterprises, have taken on an estimated 20 billion U.S. dollars in business. All of their employees were among the roughly 35-thousand Chinese nationals who fled the country in March during a rebel uprising, leaving factory buildings, equipment and unfinished projects behind.

Back at home, two state-owned construction companies received more than 30 million dollars from their insurers days after they finished evacuating 2 from Libya.

An official from the China Chamber 3 of Commerce for the Import and Export of Machinery 4 and Electronic Products says the losses are still affordable 5, as Chinese contractors 6 in Libya normally receive their contract fees on time with less than 10 percent of the workload 7 unpaid 8. It should also be noted 9 that none of the companies borrowed money from Chinese banks for their projects.

He Wenping, Director of African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says the losses to Chinese oil companies are expected to be small.

"Among the some 35-thousand Chinese workers there, only some 300 were oil workers. The China National Petroleum 10 Corporation mostly offered assistance services in Libya. China does not own drilling rigs there."

A Chinese contact group in Benghazi reports that the properties of Chinese companies in eastern Libya have largely gone undamaged while under the protection of rebel forces.

Telecommunications companies ZTE and Huawei returned to Libya last month. Huawei was laying an underwater telecoms cable linking a western Libyan city to Greece before the uprising.

African studies expert He Wenping says Libya's reconstruction 11 process offers Chinese companies an excellent opportunity to return to the country.

"Of course, it would be impossible for Chinese companies to get the biggest share considering that European countries led the military campaign. But it is equally unlikely that Chinese companies will be edged out from the country. Chinese contractors win deals around the world with their price edge and professionalism, not by interfering 12 in the political issues of other countries."

China recognized the National Transitional Council as Libya's legal representative last week when the dust of the civil war basically settled. He Wenping says he thinks the new Libyan government understands China's foreign policy that is based on the principle of non-interference in other nations' internal affairs.

The NTC leaders have reassured 13 that they will uphold previous international deals and contracts and rebuffed the idea that they will judge future business partners based on whether they were hard backers of the air raid campaign.

For CRI, I'm Su Yi.