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(Bloomberg) — Finance chiefs flocking to Saudi Arabia for its showpiece business forum might have expected to hear the powerful son of a ruling dynasty woo them with grandiose plans.
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They got it on Wednesday, but from a surprising and non-Saudi source: Belkasem Haftar, scion of Khalifa Haftar, the military strongman who’s the de facto ruler of divided Libya’s oil-rich east.
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Speaking solo on stage at the Future Investment Initiative, Haftar’s son made his bid to drum up interest in the OPEC nation that’s been engulfed in successive rounds of conflict since the 2011 overthrow of dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
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“We are working with confidence and determination to make our country an attractive destination for investment and a center for trade, energy, and services in the region,” Haftar — who’s increasingly the business-friendly face of the family — told attendees in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
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Libya is split between an internationally recognized government in the west and a Haftar-backed rival in the east, with the latter location home to about 80% of the country’s 1.3 million daily barrels of crude production. Sporadic feuds disrupt energy flows and threaten to spiral into outright war, an issue that will likely make many investors wary before committing.
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All the same, Haftar singled out the potential of Benghazi — the biggest eastern city and traditionally a rival to the western capital Tripoli — as the country’s new business hub.
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While Belkasem holds regular meetings with foreign officials and business leaders, his Saudi jaunt was a rare public-speaking appearance outside Libya. The western government wasn’t represented on the FII speaker list and the younger Haftar’s presence may signal eastern Libya’s growing prominence in international circles.
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It comes as his father — who led a failed military campaign to seize Tripoli in 2019 — presses on with ambitious infrastructure projects in the east and promises stability after years of chaos. Belkasem heads the Libyan Development and Reconstruction Fund, which has rebuilt the city of Derna after 2023 floods. Another son, Saddam, is the successor to lead the self-styled Libyan National Army.
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The increasingly pro-business signals contrast with the situation in Tripoli, where Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah’s government has been plagued by failing public services and months of clashes between rival militias.
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“I am honored to stand today among this elite group of leaders, decision-makers, experts and investors to convey to you the message of the new Libya,” Belkasem told the FII.
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