Bibliography – Dr. Ali

Dr. Ali Al-Issawi is a leading economist, politician, and diplomat, born and raised in the City of Benghazi. He earned his bachelor’s degree and his master’s studies at the Faculty of Economics, University of Benghazi. Dr. Al-Issawi completed his education in Bucharest, Romania, where he received his PhD in economics from the Academy of Economic Studies. He also received a diploma in international relations from the Institute of International Relations, affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tripoli, Libya, and a certificate in health economics from the University of York in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Ali Al-Issawi began his diplomatic career by assuming an attaché role at the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1989, after which he served as the economic and cultural attaché at the Libyan Embassy in Romania. In 2004, Al-Issawi became Director General of the Fund for Expanding the ownership Base (Privatization Fund). He also served in 2006 as Director General of the Export promotion Center. In 2007 he became a minister for trade and economy and, in 2010 he was appointed as Libyan ambassador to India. Following the Revolution of February 17, 2011, the National Transitional Council (NTC) appointed Dr. Al-Issawi Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the revolution. In 2013, he became Ambassador of the State of Libya to India, a function he held for the second time. Upon his return to Libya in 2018, Dr. Al-Issawi was appointed the Minister of Economy and Industry again for the second time.

Success under pressure

Dr. Issawi is known for his ability to work and deliver positive results in the face of exceptional circumstances, whether it be an economic, social, administrative crisis, or political upheaval.

During his 2011 tenure as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy prime minister for the revolution Dr. Al-Issawi faced numerous crises, which requires special skills to handle the political, economic and security critical issues. As Minister of Economy, he was faced with both an intense war and the coronavirus pandemic combined with serious economic problems like public debt , lack of liquidity In 2019, under his leadership, Ministry performance significantly improved Libya’s stability, in spite of the looming challenges. As mentioned below, Dr Isawi during his career had led many economic and policy reform initiatives to improve the business environment and the economy as a whole.

Legislative

Under international standards, Dr. Al-Issawi led the preparation of Law No. 23 of 2010 regarding commercial activity. He also led the development of the Corporate Law, which for the first time in Libya’s history incorporated topics such stock market, competition and anti-monopoly, consumer protection and license facilitation into Libya’s legal framework. Dr. Al-Issawi oversaw preparing the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), the first-ever legal framework for cooperation between Libya and the United States of America.

Economic

Dr. Al-Issawi is the founder of a one-stop-shop system in 2008 to facilitate the business establishments. The rate of company registrations increased by 20 times its original rate, now down to a new registration every 12 working minutes. He increased the rate of cooperation and trade exchange between Libya and Tunisia to reach the highest rate in the Arab world, which was presented as a model of success for Arab countries to follow during the Arab League meetings. Dr. Al-Issawi oversaw lifting many restrictions on foreign trade and economic activity, enabling Libya to achieve the highest level of improvement in the world per indicator of economic freedom (Heritage Foundation, 2009). The level of improvement from the previous condition reached (4.8). Also, during his tenure Libya recorded a distinguished rank in the rate of economic openness. Dr. Al-Issawi established the Insurance Supervision Authority to regulate the insurance market and the Export promotion Center to diversify the economy and reduce dependence on oil. In 2018, he started the process of reforming the Ministry of Economy and Industry that followed the increase in a number of projects approved under the Investment Promotion Law in 2019, as the value of the approved projects amounted to more than five billion Libyan dinars, equivalent to about 17% of all previous projects.

Diplomatic

In 2008, his visit to the U.S. to negotiate the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) was the first official visit of a Libyan official to the U.S. in half a century. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Libyan revolution, a period that required highly professional diplomatic skills. In this time, for and on behalf of the NTC, he succeeded in obtaining international recognition from several countries, including France and Italy. Dr. Al-Issawi also participated in the establishment of the Crisis Team and the Executive Office of the NTC at the beginning of the February 17 Revolution in 2011 and gained international community support for the Libyan revolution.

Crises management

Dr. Issawi’s efforts contributed to significant successes, including: Establishment of a crisis team and the foundation of the Executive Office during the beginning of the February revolution in respect to the basic needs and services of Libyans. Strengthening the economic reforms program of 2018 and providing a program for reforming fuel subsidies. Achieving stability in the 2019 Libyan market, a year that witnessed a violent aggression on the capital of Tripoli April 4th, forced the oil facilities closure, emergence of COVID-19. During such crises Dr. Al-Issawi managed to reduce the rate of inflation from about 13% at the end of 2018 to -2.2% in the year 2019, thanks to his policy of providing opportunities for all and not granting any exceptions from the fee imposed on hard currency.

Memberships

The Supreme Oil and Gas Council.
The Board of Trustees of the Economic Development Council.
The National Security Council.
The Board of Trustees of the Libyan Investment authority.
The Supreme Committee for Expanding the Ownership Base (Privatization).
The Supreme Committee for the Employment Fund – Head of the Libyan side in the joint economic Libyan Indian and Libyan-Pakistani committees.
Chairperson of the Investment Promotion Authority board.
Chairman of the Credit Guarantee Fund board of directors.

Initiatives and projects

Initiative for the digital transformation of the Ministry of Economy and Industry He oversaw the complete transition to digitalization in the entire sector, as the project started with the import and export systems, the commercial register, trademarks and modeling, with the aim of reducing the cost, time and effort to fight corruption. He launched the initiative to apply the input-output model to the Libyan economy to improve the performance level of public policies in cooperation with the “Eco Mode” organization.

Initiative for several projects in collaboration with the world bank 2007-2009 for example, rating Libya in doing business reports, non-oil export promotion survey, WTO accession preparation, shadow economy survey.

Initiative for the e-regulation and e-registration to facilitate the business procedures with unctad organization in 2019.

Initiative to finance projects outside the government budget, through public-private partnerships (PPP) and activating the law of Islamic instruments (sukuk law no 4/2016) to finance development projects by the cabinet.

Scholarship and public outreach

In addition to his work and his official duties, Dr. Al-Issawi worked as a collaborating professor at Libyan universities teaching economics. He also gave several lectures on health economics, free trade agreements, and financing projects outside the government budget by public and private partnership and Islamic instruments by Sukuk method.