Benghazi ready to open Libya's stock market

Preparing to open for business in Libya.
Libya's stock market will be ready to resume trading in about one month...and the hope is to attract more foreign investors.
Nagib Abdel Salam Obeida is the head of the benghazi Exchange.
SOUNDBITE: Nagib Abdel Salam Obeida, Head of the Benghazi Exchange saying: (Arabic):
"In all honesty, we are expecting to be able to resume trading within a month, God willing."
Trading in the market, which used to operate in Tripoli and Benghazi simultaneously, has been halted since February 17, the day an uprising started in Benghazi.
Under Muammar Gaddafi, Libya was touted as having the potential to become a Dubai-style financial hub but corruption and arbitrary rule changes frightened off investors.
SOUNDBITE: Nagib Abdel Salam Obeida, Head of the Benghazi Exchange saying: (Arabic):
"This is also one of the principles that needs to be part of the economic infrastructure that shall be in the future, God willing. If the Libyan economic law or the law that organizes and encourages the foreign investor to come in- if you want to encourage someone to come in, you need to show them a way out too. A foreign investor will not enter without knowing how to leave."
The exchange only had 12 listed companies and trading volumes were small, but the resumption of trading would send a signal to investors that Libya is back in business.
Deborah Lutterbeck, Reuters.