SEKO Libya resumes activities after tumultuous year

   SEKO, a global provider of supply-chain services and logistics, has announced that its Tripoli-based SEKO Libya is able to resume activities after ten months of suspension due to the revolution in Libya.
   SEKO Libya also said that all sanctions imposed on Libya have been lifted and that the new government in Libya has promised to help out industry on a local level.
   “This will give us great opportunities for trade,” said captain Khalid Sherwi, SEKO Libya’s general manager.  “The resumption of logistics activities in Libya is a sign that the country has undertaken large steps towards transition.”
   Libya is still experiencing some local troubles with cash flow, as banks are limiting the amount of money individuals and companies can withdraw or move each month. These limits are expected to ease as the country’s central bank receives more of Libya’s foreign assets that were frozen by international sanctions.
   In September, the United Nations (U.N.) eased sanctions on Libya’s national oil company but shifted them to both the Central Bank of Libya and the Libyan Foreign Bank, an offshore institution owned by the central bank. These and previous sanctions froze roughly $150 billion in Libyan assets, only $18 billion of which had been released back to the country’s bank by November.
   At the end of December, U.N. sanctions on these financial institutions were lifted with no objections, but the full release of the funds and their availability to businesses and individuals has no defined timetable.