High investment in downstream industries - petrochemicals, refineries, fertilizers and aluminum smelting.
Most food is imported.
Reliance on foreign labor. Lack of water for agriculture. History of international unreliability. Profile Western oil companies had close business ties with Libya until the imposition of UN sanctions over the Lockerbie affair in April 1992. In 1993, Gaddafi called for the program of privatization, authorized by the General People's Congress in late 1992, to be revived but there have been few tangible results.