The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) welcomes the meeting today between Minister of Finance Faraj Bumatari with his counterpart Muraja Ghaith in Brega to consolidate the 2021 national budget. This intra-Libyan cooperation is encouraging and a much-needed step that should be matched by genuine efforts on the political track to form a unified government that will be better positioned to effectively implement the unified budget.

The unification and rationalization of the national budget is crucial to establishing a more durable and equitable economic arrangement that will meet the needs of average Libyans for improved services and address the urgent requirement to repair the country’s deteriorating infrastructure, particularly the electrical grid.  It is important that the budget formulation be conducted in a transparent manner with the technical support of the International Financial Institutions.