To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate UK Trade and Investment has made of the number of occasions on which representatives or agents of UK business have had discussions with (a) the government of Libya and (b) Libyan businesses and their representatives in the last two years. (290820)

[holding answer 9 September 2009]: The information requested is as follows:

(a) UKTI estimates such contacts with the Government of Libya would be in the region of 500 to 1,000.

(b) UKTI’s estimate is that such contacts in the last two years would be in the thousands. The British Business Group in Libya now numbers some 100 members, about half of which are resident in Libya. There have been a series of trade missions by UK business associations over the past two years.

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on how many occasions employees or representatives of UK Trade and Investment have had discussions with representatives or agents of (a) the Libyan Government and (b) Libyan businesses in the last two years. (290821)

[holding answer 9 September 2009]: The information requested is as follows:

(a) There were UKTI organised visits to Libya by the Duke of York as Special Representative for International Trade and Investment in November 2007, the then Lord Mayor of the City of London in March 2008 and the then Minister of State for Trade and Investment in May 2008, all involved various contacts with the Libyan Government. Mr Shokri Ghanem, Chairman of the Libyan NOC was hosted by UKTI during his visit to the UK in November 2008. UKTI arranged an event in London on 20 July 2009 where Dr Bashir Saleh Bashir, Chairman of the Libyan Africa Investment Portfolio and delegation addressed and met a range of British companies.

There have been regular UKTI visits to Libya, as well as meetings with representatives of the Libyan Government visiting the UK. There have been very regular contacts with the Libyan Government by the UKTI team in Tripoli. It is not possible to place a figure on the number of times there have been such contacts without a very detailed analysis, the costs of which would exceed the limit for answering parliamentary questions.

(b) The UKTI team in Tripoli have several contacts daily with Libyan businesses in the course of their work to support British companies seeking business in Libya. Contacts by other members of UKTI would number around 50 to 100.

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what contribution UK Trade and Investment has made to each ministerial visit to Libya in the last two years. (290822)

[holding answer 9 September 2009]: The then Minister of State for Trade and Investment visited Libya in May 2008. UKTI arranged his programme, briefing and the follow up. For other ministerial visits the UKTI team in Tripoli assisted with arrangements for relevant parts of the programme and UKTI HQ in London provided standard written background briefing on trade and investment.