WIKA project in Libya facing cancellation

A high-rise shopping center in Libya to be built by PT Wijaya Karya Tbk (WIKA) may have to be canceled following the heated political situation in that country.

"The project may be canceled in view of the developments taking place there," the company`s secretary Natal Agriawan said at the state-owned companies ministry on Tuesday.

The shopping mall would have been worth US$11.6 million, the equivalent of Rp 107 billion. Some 70 percent of the project, or Rp70 billion, was planned to be built by WIKA, and the remaining 30 percent by a partner.

Natal said the business of a contractor is highly dependent on security and it had been predicted that the political chaos in Libya would be over soon.

"The owner of the project has yet to confirm its fate," he said as quoted by Antara.

Since the outbreak of the chaos in Libya, WIKA had already repatriated 200 of its workers, and some of them moved to Algeria to build a WIKA project.

Despite the cancellation of the project in Libya which was planned for completion in June 2011, Natal ensured that the company`s operations would not be disrupted.

"We were lucky to be able to maintain our financial position, as the company has already received Rp 7 billion for the work. The payment was for the work that WIKA had done," he said.