TRIPOLI, Libya – Philippine Labor Attaché Nasser Mustafa has cited the bright prospects for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in this Muslim country by the Mediterranean Sea, saying Libya is on a heightened modernization activity to catch up with progress.

Mustafa said Libyan cities such as Tripoli, the capital, and Bengazi, the biggest, and others are a-buzz from construction activities to build skyscrapers and thousands of medium-rise buildings to create what the people of Al-Fateh Revolution and Libyan Leader Colonel Muammar Al-Ghaddafi call a "New Libya."

In Tripoli alone, this Manila Bulletin writer, invited by the Tripoli-based World Islamic Call Society (WICS) to cover the participation of Muslim Filipino leaders at the Nov. 5 to 8 World Islamic People's Leadership (WIPL) 5th General Conference, saw new hotels rising, like the Daiwoo Tripoli Hotel (nearly completed) fronting the Mediterranean Sea.

Also being built are thousands of medium-rise buildings many of them to be used as residence of Libyan citizens.

Old homes and other structures are being demolished.

In about three to five years, Mustafa said visitors will be seeing an entirely different face of Libya, funded from her oil and gas earnings.

It could be recalled that the United Nations suspended its sanctions on Libya in 1999 while the United States between 2004 and 2006 removed Libya from its list of states sponsoring terrorism, resumed normal ties and lifted sanctions.

These opened Libya and its petroleum investment sector to the world.

A member of the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC), Libya has the biggest oil reserves in Africa, and one of the 12 largest producers in the world, with about 1.17 barrels per day (bpd) and to be raised to three million bpd in 2012.

Mustafa spoke before a dinner tendered for the visiting Muslim leaders by the officials of the Filipino Muslim Consultative Council (FMCC) Tripoli's outskirt of Sawani and hosted by the couple Haznor L. Mangondaya (FMCC chairman) and Nadjefah B.A. Mangondaya, who works as tourism attaché at the Philippine Embassy here.

"Libya's relations with the Filipino community here are going well. There are minor problems, but we manage to resolve them. Libyan employers like Filipino workers for their dedication, hard work, adaptability, and honesty," said Mustafa.