News updates

Safadi Foundation organized last Wednesday a seminar on the techniques of hydroponic agriculture.  The event was held at the Safadi agriculture centre in Deir Dulum (Akkar) and was attended by around 20 farmers and agronomists from different areas in Akkar.  The director general of Safadi, Riad Alamuddine, noted that the seminar was implemented within the framework of the Foundations’ development policy especially within the agriculture sector in order to secure the sustainability of project after the completion of their funding.  To be noted that the hydroponic agriculture project is a part of another wider project called “Da2em” which is funded by USAID.
Agronomist Bassam al Khoury presented for his part an introduction to the concept of hydroponic agriculture and the reasons why it is expanding throughout the world.  He spoke of the positive aspects of this technique notably in terms of saving 50% of the water requirement as well as overcoming problems related to soil, decreasing the pollution of ground water and saving in the usage of fertilizers and rationalizing the use of land.
Source: L’Orient Le Jour 24 May 2014

Pursuant to the news published on May 19th about the arbitrary detention of Senegalese domestic workers and which caused an uproar amongst the Senegalese community in Lebanon. The Coalition of Senegalese Nationals issued a statement saying that the community has only the right to express itself vis-à-vis the practices of law enforcement.  The statement refutes all allegations by the police and which were published on WEEPortal on this subject (refer to the following link: “Four Senegalese domestic workers beaten and humiliated as a result of the prevailing sponsorship system”, calling on Lebanese officials to reconsider the issue of the Senegalese domestic workers who were subjected to violence and humiliation and who are still under arrest despite the attempts of their employers to secure their release.  The statement concludes by saying: “At least let us work in peace while you focus on capturing real criminals and their likes”.
Source: L’Orient Le Jour 24 May 2014

According to last Saturday’s issue of Al Akhbar, the ILO has organized a workshop including a number of academics and trade unionists from Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen and Oman for the purpose of understanding the realities of trade union representation as well as consider the possibility of creating an independent trade movement in the region given the political complexities and the aftermath of the Arab revolts and the fact that only 10% of the labor force is actually represented in trade unions.  During the workshop, AUB professor Vijay Prashad spoke of new mechanisms to reach workers and convince them to join trade unions namely not accessing workers in their place of work but in their homes as well as recognizing the presence of marginalized communities of worker and challenging organization barriers between workers and unions and regional networking and exchange of experiences amongst trade unions.
For his part, Ghassan Dibeh of AUB spoke about the new categories of workers that are difficult to study.  He noted that global economic transformation and globalization sought to convince peoples that these trends are inevitable but failed to produce any changes in the structure of the trade movements but rather dismantled the working class and eroded earlier gains.  Dibeh added that the new slogans of trade unions should be the inclusion of marginalized labor.
Finally and according to the newspaper, the workshop mainly focused on the trade union representation of migrant workers and domestic workers since there are some 25 million domestic workers who are considered to be outside the labor forces with only shy attempts taking place in the region to include them in trade unions.
Source: Al-Akhbar 24 May 2014

According to an opinion poll implemented by ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller about the views of Arab youth, 72% of the Lebanese expressed their concern with regards to the rising unemployment in Lebanon compared to 22% who indicated that they are not worried about this and 6% noting that they had no comment. According to the same study, 88% of the Lebanese also expressed their concern regarding the rising cost of living in Lebanon and 78% stating that the government should subsidize the cost of electricity and transportation. It is to be noted that the poll covered some 3500 individual interviews with young women and men with ages ranging between 18 to 24 years and covered Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Jordan, Palestine, Qatar, KSA, Tunisia and Yemen.
Within the same vein, L’Orient-le-Jour published last Friday an article on an ILO study which indicated that unemployment amongst the youth reached 23% in 2010 but have now soared to 33% after the political and security breakdown, and this according to the current Minister of Labor.
Source: L’Orient Le Jour 26 May 2014

Alpha Orascom celebrated the international Girls’ ICT day for the second year running.  This celebration recorded the participation of 25 students in secondary level from various schools in Lebanon. The event aimed to support women and girls’ engagement in the ICT sector and to provide them with opportunities to familiarize with the various challenges offered by the ICT sector.
The event included a tour of Alpha’s technology section in addition to discussions with women directors and staff in the company which provided visiting students with an opportunity to engage with the Alpha women staff and to benefit from their experiences and expertise as well as ask questions about day to day work at the company.  The event was concluded with a competition amongst the students to create Apps so as to test their creative capacities. It is to be noted that this initiative is part of the company’s commitment to strengthen women’s participation in ICT and seeks to contribute to encouraging girls seeking to enter college to choose specializations related to the ICT sector.  To be noted that 40% of Alpha’s employees are women and 21% hold technology related jobs.

Source: Al-Diyar 23 May 2014

The Women Empowerment initiative at the BLC Bank coordinated the holding of the Forum for Women in Leadership which was held yesterday at the Four Seasons Hotel.  The event recorded the participation of some150 women in leadership positions in both business/private and public sectors. The forum developed into lively discussions between women leaders and women who aspire to take on leadership positions within their businesses or jobs.  The main speakers of the forum included Huda Younan, Microsoft Country Manager in Lebanon, Suzan El Hajj, Head of the Cyber Crime and Intellectual Property Protection Office of the ISF and Maya Margie, Head of Marketing Group at BLC Bank.
The PR director at the BLC Bank, Karyl Akilian, noted the success of the event and highlighted the aspirations and ideas of the participants.  She also congratulated the seminar which, according to her, fulfilled its goal which is to create communication networks amongst women leaders and younger women who need support and encouragement as well as establishing relations with experts and innovators.

Source: Al-Mustaqbal 23 May 2014

The Food and Agricultural Organisation, FAO, held a discussion meeting yesterday at the Movenpick Hotel to present the FAO regional five-year plan which seeks to strengthen livelihoods and agricultural systems in those communities affected by the Syrian crisis in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq.  The discussion focused on the impact of the Syrian crisis on food security, nutrition, natural resources, agriculture and livelihoods in Syria and its neighboring countries while emphasizing in the case of Lebanon that the decision to allow Syrians to work remains in the hands of the national government.
The meeting included the presentation of the action plan that FAO has recently completed for Lebanon.  The Lebanon action plan emphasizes strengthening the domestic capacity to maintain food security given the implications of the Syrian crisis. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that FAO is seeking to collect USD 280 million through launching calls for the implementation of the strategic plan for all targeted countries that includes short, medium and long term measures, in order to build the capacities of communities affected by the crisis to adapt to the effects of the long conflict. According to the FAO Resident Representative in Lebanon, Bruno Manjaw, “the human response is very important to meet the needs of the those affected by the crisis, but we also need to focus on medium and long term investments in order to build flexible capacities within hosting communities and to support the development of sustainable agricultural and rural sector. For his part, the Regional Representative of FAO, Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, noted that, since the start of the Syrian crisis, there has been degradation in the situation of food in Syria and its neighboring countries with a drop of 50% in the production of grains compared to the pre-crisis years.  He also added that the crisis has caused serious damages to the agricultural infrastructure in addition to losses in livestock and the movement of agricultural resources across the border without due health controls thus causing serious threats of disease propagation.
At the level of Lebanon’s agricultural economy, Abdessalam emphasized the deterioration of the production capacity of the agricultural sector especially in frontline areas in Hermel, Baalbak and Akkar where farmers cannot reach their land.  He also added that there is no accurate information on the situation of agriculture and its infrastructure since 2009, a matter that rings an alarm of a possible food security crisis in addition to the fact that agriculture is not fully invested because of the dearth of Lebanese labor and the drop in labor rates.
In a related vein, the FAO report also notes a number of implications of the Syrian crisis namely the drop in actual growth by 2.9% every year since March 2011, a high unemployment rate which now exceeds 20%, an increase in public expenditure by USD 1.1 billion, and finally a drop of USD 1.5 billion in government revenues.
Source: Al-Nahar, Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Hayat 21 May 2014

The Bar Association organized yesterday in collaboration with the Brand Protection Group a seminar on “the economic impact of intellectual property rights”.  The event was held at the House of the Attorney and the president of the Bar Association, Georges Jreij noted that the Association is fully aware of the economic implications of any negligence related to protecting intellectual property rights. He highlighted advancement in Lebanese jurisprudence in issues related to the protection of intellectual property rights.  He emphasized the importance of raising awareness on this issue as well as on developing the work of the intellectual property committee within the bar association.

The Minister of Economy and Trade, Alain Hakim, noted for his part that his Ministry is interested in those issues related to intellectual property rights and in enacting related laws given the importance of protecting creators in Lebanon.  He added that this protection should be primarily through raising awareness on the culture of property rights through education, monitoring and prevention while stressing that the directorate of protection of intellectual property within the Ministry of Economy and Trade plays an important role in this matter.  Hakim also added that his Ministry is working again on enacting a Trademarking service on the internet and its website can be used to lodge applications for trademarks.

Lawyer Rany Sader spoke on behalf of the Brand Protection Group and highlighted the danger of counterfeit products which do not respect safety and health standards and results in wastage of money over products that lack quality and that do not provide guarantees and maintenance services.  He also explained the impact on the state in terms of: loss of employment and income from tax, encouraging corruption, creating a context that is conducive to crime, money laundering, loss of creativity and setback in foreign investment and in the competitiveness of local production.
Source: Al-Akhbar, NNA 22 May 2014

The Minister of Industry, Dr. Hussein Hajj Hassan and the Minister of Economy and Trade, Alain Hakim, met to follow-up on issues related to the development of the industrial sector particularly those issues common between the two Ministries and their affiliated institutions.  After the meeting, Minister Hakim noted that both Ministers agreed on a number of points that were discussed.  Hakim hoped for tangible results to develop the industry sector within the framework of the national economy.  Hajj Hassan noted for his part that the main aim of the meeting which was held as part of a series of coordination meetings he is undertaking with several Ministers, is to find ways to strengthen national industry, increase its competitiveness and thus its exports as well as investment opportunities.  Hajj Hassan emphasized the importance of raising the level of Lebanese exports whilst pointing out to the present imbalance between exports, estimated at USD 5 billion, and imports estimated between USD 18 to 19 billion annually.  Finally, Hajj Hassan added that the issues that were discussed during the meeting and which are likely to improve this sector are: a) uplifting the capacity of the industry so as to increase export; b) rebalancing trade agreements in favor of Lebanon; c) imposing taxes on imports and on the export of some raw material; d) enhancing the participation in foreign exhibitions; e) revising national laws so as to protect national products; and f) insisting on adhering to world production standards.
Source: Al-Safir, Al-Diyar 21 May 2014

Minister of Industry, Dr. Hussein Hajj Hassan, convened a joint meeting yesterday with representatives of the Syndicate of Industrialists and the Syndicate of Food Industrialists as well as the manufacturers of jars, plastic barrels and bags.  The Minister insisted on the necessity of protecting national food production from factors that may jeopardize safety and quality as this has negative implications on citizen’s health and the reputation of the Lebanese industry. Hajj Hassan also emphasized during the meeting the important role of LIBNOR (the Lebanese Standards Institution) in setting mandatory standards for the production of plastic barrels of all sizes especially those used for packaging food such as pickled, olive oil, olives, wheat and other products so as to ensure that the packaging adhere to all safety and health standards and are specifically manufactured to be used for food packaging and storing.
Source: Al-Diyar 21 May 2014