Peace upon you!
REBUILD is one of the projects established by the Nicosia Initiative and participated by Libyan municipalities, the European Union and Italian local authorities. Its structure was proposed and built in coordination with the Italian institutions.
In the framework of the project, we visited several municipalities in Italy as well as the Galicia region in Spain. We learned about how fisheries and boats work, as well sales.
The municipality of Zliten takes part in the REBUILD pilot project on fisheries, along with the municipalities of Tripoli, Sirte, Benghazi and Tobruk.
The project team visited Libya last year, including the city of Zliten and Zliten Fishing Marina.
During this visit, the High Seas Coast Fishing Unit Owners Association was formed. This was also made for the competent authorities to adopt it. A large number of sailors gathered in the city of Zliten, the owners of the fishery units.
It was agreed to form this union headed by the mayor of Zliten and also a group of the fishery units owners.
Of course, we aim to manage this unification of efforts, from this alliance. It aims to coordinate with the Ministry of Maritime Wealth and to facilitate and enable sailors to benefit and to establish themselves in the fishing sector, as well as to develop ports in Libya and implement a peaceful plan.
Libya seems a paradise, the Libyan coast is rich in fish, but there is now overfishing and lack of fish in the Mediterranean Sea.
Libya is considered rich in fish, so we must take advantage of it.
When the municipality of Zliten visited the Galicia region, we realized that the region’s annual income from the fishing sector is around eight billion euros. We thought we could do the same in Libya, especially since almost similar capabilities exist. The issue is especially about the management of the project. It was really important for us to communicate this information to the fishermen to save the industry and craft, to make it a basis for employment and income for our country, Libya, which means income for citizens.
The objective of the REBUILD project is coordination of municipalities in order to achieve the main goal which is for Libya to join the European code, so that Libyan fishermen can sell their fish directly to the European Union. Unfortunately, Libyan fish are now smuggled from neighboring countries and sold at the lowest prices. If Libya grants the code. Of course, in more than one committee, fish processing centers should be established.
Also among the objectives of establishing the alliance is to encourage investors and businessmen to establish centers and to develop the port by themselves. Sea fishing should obtain international and European standards, in order to obtain the code and export fish directly to Europe, in coordination with the Ministry of Marine Resources. Also, the Food Control Team was present in many seminars and meetings in Italy.
A purposeful project, God willing, will come out with positive results.
There was a recent executive mission of the studying team. In October there was instead a visit to gather information and propose plans.
We wish success to all participating municipalities, and we thank the local authorities of the European side, and also the European Union, which funded this project. We hope that the Libyan side will benefit from it.
The goal, as I told you, is to develop the infrastructure and develop the Libyan fisher sector, as well as develop or obtain the European code for exporting fish directly to benefit from the European market.
We appreciate our relationship with partners: we can rely on a regular follow-up of the activities and also on the support budget. We thank especially the coordinator, Ms. Benedetta, for the efforts she made, as well as the team that previously visited from Libya despite all problems and travel which were facilitated by the Secretariat.
There is overall commitment, and we thank the municipalities that participated with us and presented them better to the municipalities of Benghazi, Tobruk, Sirte, and Tripoli for hosting Zliten. We are coordinating among municipalities in order to reach the desired goals. Even if a lot of time is needed, conditions will now come to be successful.
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