Marking the national day for industry or steering against the tide

The Ministry of Industry commemorated yesterday the ‘National Day for the Lebanese Industry’ under the patronage of Prime Minister Tamam Salam who was represented by Industry Minister Dr. Hussein Haj Ali at the Industrial Research Institute, Lebanese University in Hadath. The Head of the Industrial Information Department at the Ministry of Industry, Rabi Badran, opened the event with a presentation of key economic data related to the performance of the industrial sector between 2012 and 2014. Charbel Salloom, engineer at the Licenses Department in the Ministry also outlined the country’s industrial map indicating the various current industrial districts in Lebanon. Haj Hassan, for his part, after describing the major challenges facing the sector and noting the falling public revenues, pointed out to several proposals for the advancement of the sector, particularly related to fiscal and tax incentives, which have been agreed with the Minister of Finance, and still awaiting to be implanted. Some of the proposed incentives include the 50% exemption of income tax on profits from industrial exports; amendment of Article 17 of the VAT bill which exempts raw materials and industrial equipment from the VAT tax; the passing of a law on mergers between factories; subsidizing interest rates on operational capital in the case of industrial exports, and finally, promoting industrial research and exempting it from taxes. To this effect, Director-General of the Ministry of Industry, Dany Gedeon presented the comprehensive industrial vision developed by his ministry (Lebanon Industry 2025). Finally, it is to be noted, that in a recent speech, the governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon totally overlooked the industrial sector when referring to the leading sectors that will shape the future of the Lebanese economy. (For the CBL governor’s statement click here)
(As Safir, Al Diyar, Al Mustaqbal, 3 June 2015)