Ever since the February 2011 revolution against Muammar Gaddafi began, we in Malta have been following the daily evolution of news coming from our big neighbour down South.

There were times when the fighting was intense and when we could hear the planes overhead on their way to attack Libya. Then the fighting was over, Gaddafi was caught and killed and many hoped the situation would normalise.

Instead, Libya seems to have become even more unsettled, the latest episode being the sacking of the Libyan prime minister on Tuesday and his subsequent flight to Malta and onwards. According to the Libya Herald, “By leaving Libya, Zeidan flouted a travel ban imposed by Attorney General Abdel Qadar Radwan. The ban, directed to the head of the Passports Agency, was issued last night. It said Zeidan was to be prevented from leaving the country until ongoing investigations into financial irregularities had been completed.”

In these circumstances, one would have thought Maltese businessmen would steer away from any involvement in business with Libya. Instead, a recent seminar ‘Doing Business in Libya’ was so over-subscribed the venue had to be changed three times and one of the largest halls at the Portomaso Hilton could barely contain the press of businessmen who attended.

There they were presented with a completely different version to that proposed, day in, day out, by the international media. As was also reported on The Financial Times, Libya is at present enjoying a huge consumer boom which is completely unprecedented, certainly very different from the Gaddafi times.

There is so much shipping in the port of Tripoli that space has become rather limited and delays are experienced. And, as we report in today’s front page, Misrata is taking steps to create a vast container terminal in direct competition with the Malta Freeport and those in Italy.

A charismatic speaker, Husni Bey from the HB Group, said the security concerns regard issues between Libyans themselves and do not involve foreigners. He asked the very full hall if anyone has experienced any threat while in Libya and no one raised his hand. The exponential growth of GDP in Libya is mainly private-sector-driven.

The Maltese businessmen at the conference did not need any extra urging: they realise that Malta is very well placed to be able to do business in Libya, that there are huge opportunities there and that Libyans generally prefer to do business with Maltese.

Furthermore, it is true there are security issues in the country but while one must not underestimate them, the post-Gaddafi Libyans are very democratic when for 40 years they never used that word, and mostly prefer to solve issues democratically. In particular, it was true that PM Zeidan had rendered himself unsufferable to most people in the country but he was ultimately voted out by the Congress in preparation for new elections in the near future.

The Maltese who spoke at the conference stated they had been coming and going with no threat to their lives even in the midst of the fighting. What they all, Maltese and Libyans, complained about, vociferously, was about delays in issuing visas, which is being tackled, so it was said, at both ends.

As Foreign Minister George Vella said, Malta saw a huge 19.2% increase in exports to Libya last year, to $238 million, while imports from Libya rose by 10.7% to $113 million. Just under 35,000 Libyans visited Malta last year, double the number the previous year.

At this stage in the country’s development, Libyans need everything, from the teaching of English to technical matters and the place best suited to offer it to them is Malta. To succeed in Libya, as one participant put it, one needs to have patience, determination, to be flexible and adaptable.

One could see, looking around the hall, many Maltese determined to be so, or already being so. There may be a crisis in  many other markets which make trading with them somewhat problematic. But here, next door, there is a country very willing to learn, to grow and to trade after so many years in limbo.