(Sh.M.Network)- Somalia's new government will focus on the economy as it seeks to rebuild a nation shattered by two decades of war, Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said.The country is in the final stages of selecting a two-tier parliament, Ali, who is a candidate to become president, said in an interview in Mogadishu, the capital, on Aug. 16. Lawmakers are scheduled to vote in a new president today, though the process may be delayed because the vetting of parliamentarians has taken longer than expected, he said.
The elections are Somalia's latest attempt to establish a functional central administration that collapsed when the former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. The country has been mired in clan-based conflict and an insurgency led by al- Qaeda-linked faceless myrmidons ever since.
The lack of security has allowed piracy and hostage-taking to flourish, fueled by criminals seeking ransoms. Attacks by pirates in 2011 cost the shipping industry and governments $6.9 billion, according to the Colorado-based One Earth Future Foundation.
"There's a great deal of unemployment here, that's why the youth are taking their luck to the high seas," Ali said. "We need a paradigm shift, a new way of thinking, and a sound, tangible plan for competing in the global market place in the near future."
Foreign Investors
Somalia has a $5.9 billion economy, according to the U.S. State Department. That compares with neighboring Kenya's $32 billion economy, the region's largest. Investors in Somalia include Africa Oil Corp.
(AOI), based in Vancouver, and partners Red Emperor Resources NL (RMP) and Range Resources Ltd. (RRS) of Australia, which said in March they will invest $50 million drilling two wells in Puntland
...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
, a semi-autonomous northern region of the country.
Others vying for the presidency include the incumbent, President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden. The winner faces challenges including tackling corruption, restoring security and reviving a moribund economy.