There's a riot going on

Stephen White

With so much already written and no doubt to be scribed on the wildfire of unrest that has spread across North Africa and Bahrain, I was happy to not add what would only be an underline to something you are sure to have read elsewhere.

But then it became clear that protests and rioting had invited some to loot construction sites in the eastern provinces of Libya – and it became impossible for me to ignore.

It was first reported that Turkish construction companies had been attacked and their machinery and equipment stolen. That was bad enough.

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Then we received even more worrying news of 18 workers being injured as so-called protestors ransacked a construction site being run by a South Korean company.

One can only imagine the horror when 500 armed Libyans stormed the site 30km west of the capital Tripoli early on 21 February.

Their attack left 15 Bangladesh nationals hurt, including two who were left suffering serious stab wounds alongside three South Koreans. All those at the site, a housing complex, fled, leaving the ‘looters’ to occupy it claiming it as part of a promise broken to them by the Gaddafi regime. It was shameful violent opportunitism that you hope has no part of the country’s future.

Unlike many fellow journalists that have applied a broad brush to the troubles we have witnessed over the last month, I do not see this turmoil as a “Middle East problem”.

The problems in North Africa may have inspired the action in Bahrain, but it is not one and the same. Thankfully, I’m sure that many of us involved in this industry are aware of the difference.

Not least because Algeria, Egypt and Libya have proven to be happy hunting grounds for many of you. Equally, I’m sure many of you know people that have been personally affected by the events. It may be a friend, relative or business associate, but in whatever case, I hope they are safe.

The troubles across the region should remind us not to rest on our laurels in any of the places that we choose to conduct our business, not least because the past few weeks have exposed a chronic lack of emergency planning and misunderstanding of the political and economic landscape of those countries.

A colleague of mine wrote recently about the opportunities that present themselves now there have been regime changes in so many countries.

Take Egypt for example. Companies like Emaar have already found some (limited) opportunities in the country, but there is now the real possibility that it may open up even further.

Its heavily nationalised economy is in desperate need of deregulation and expansion to exploit some fundamental fiscal strengths that places it close in the rankings in terms of GDP to Saudi Arabia.

Should it embark on reforms, machinery will be vital in rebuilding and reshaping the country. We understand that. But we also stand at both the precipice and the base of the mountain with these countries as they face a new future and we need to be prepared for a volatile and uncertain period.

It is absolutely imperative that you start initiating programmes for crisis planning as it is impossible to predict what lies ahead. It also makes good business sense to make contracts and logistics watertight from this point forward.

More broadly, the questions we face as an industry are: do we (and as my colleague suggested) stand ready to take advantage of whatever opportunities that present themselves? Or do we go cautiously forward, fingers burned from past experience?

Personally, I prefer another, third way.

As the providers of the tools and machines that will build these countries’ futures we must be ready to help, in whatever way we can. But we must do it responsibly.

We cannot exploit and nor must we cower to new masters in these countries for the sake of selling more machines than a rival. The world is now a different place and it’s up to us to help ensure it’s a better one.