News updates

As Safir newspaper published a report today about the rampant unemployment amongst Lebanese graduates.  The report pointed out to the plight of young people who try to find decent employment which are commensurate with their studies.  The report also relays the views of employers concerning the imbalances in the Lebanese market which pushes young people to take any job, emigrate or remain indefinitely unemployed.
The report shares a number of stories of young people who have graduated from different specializations and who are trying to find jobs within these specializations and end up forcibly taking jobs as waiters or salespersons to secure their livelihoods.  Other young people resort to emigration to any country which will provide them with a job and a decent living.  On the other hand, employers find themselves in front of a golden opportunity with the influx of displaced people who take on jobs with low salaries.  A restaurant owner in Beirut, Tony Matar, says that whereas students start working in restaurants or cafes to earn a living while studying, they find themselves continuing to work there for many years for lack of other better opportunities.  George Saab, a show shop owner in Beirut notes that many young people with university degrees ask to have any job so that they are able to live even if these jobs are below their expectations.
According to the President of the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers (CGTL), Ghassan Ghosn, there is a glaring absence of coordination amongst relevant Ministries and universities. This situation is highly detrimental to the youth as only 1 of 5 young graduates is able to find a job.  He adds that most young people choose to study business, law and literature which are now in surplus as the job market of today needs more technical experts in applied mechanics, electricity and others.  Ghosn went on to day that after the civil war, the Lebanese economy was transformed which depends on “royalties” from real estate and financial markets and other similar sectors which do not sufficiently create jobs.  Meanwhile, productive sectors which could potentially create thousands of jobs were neglected.  Consequently, Ghosn highlighted the importance for the current and subsequent governments to adopt policies that would ensure reaching the equilibrium between supply (education) and demand (job market).
Finally, Ghosn noted the absence of a serious humanitarian policy to address the problems of displaced people from Syria, thus leaving Lebanese workers in the face of serious foreign competition as displaced workers often have the kind of technical specializations that are in demand in Lebanon and are likely to accept lower wages.
Source: Al-Safir 28 February 2014

Fekr wa 7ayat Association concluded yesterday its ICT and English training for women which was organised in B7neen-Minyeh within the framework of its project entitled "economic empowerment of Syrian and Lebanese Women 2013/2014".  The project was funded by the small grants programme of the American Embassy in Beirut, and extended over a four months period and targeted Syrian and Lebanese women who attended it free of charge, received coverage for their transportation costs while participating in various cultural and leisure activities. The project seeks to empower Lebanese and Syrian women and to help them build their skills so that they can find work and thus face their daily social and economical challenges.  These completed trainings were the first phase of the project. The subsequent phase will begin in March and will include training in handicrafts.
It is to be noted that the association organized last week, within the framework of the same project, a workshop about CEDAW.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal 28 February 2014

Mohammad Karaki, the Director General of the National Social Security Fund, presented a paper entitled "Social protection policies and their role in sustainable development" at the second Arab Foreign for Development and employment which was convened in the city of Riyadh (KSA), and which was entitled "towards social protection and sustainable development".
Karaki highlighted the key dimensions of sustainable development namely economic, environmental and social dimensions. He pointed out to the importance of each in achieving social justice as well as ensuring that there are necessary policies and measures to increase the outreach of social coverage in the Arab region.  Karaki also spoke of ways to address challenges which are facing social security systems namely in relation to the rise in unemployment rates and ways to create new job opportunities.
Karaki addressed the importance of applying economic policies which will improve the investment environment and will expand the job market as well as the educational system.  He also recommended the adoption of policies for ensuring social protection especially for those working in the informal sector and concluded by insisting on the importance of securing health coverage for all citizens as well as creating work for women so as to improve the livelihoods for their families.
Source: Al-Diyar, Al-Mustaqbal 27 February 2014

UN ESCWA launched in Tunis the day before yesterday its latest report entitled Arab Integration: A 21st Century Development Imperative.  The report provides a comprehensive and strategic vision on "Arab complementarity" and was put together by a collection of Arab and international consultants, intellectuals, and experts who concurred to concluded that there are little prospects for complementarily in the Arab region with the continued state of fragmentation between Arab countries.  The authors considered that Arab collective action should focus on the protection of common interests and securing national sovereignty.
The report reviews the main milestones of Arab complementarity in economics, politics, culture, and popular solidarity.  The report begins with a review of the main pillars of complementarity in the region and demonstrates through accurate and factual analysis that simple measures such as reducing transportation costs and increasing exchange of manual labour amongst Arab states can increase regional domestic product by more than USD 750 billions in a matter of just a few years and will also secure more than 6 million new jobs.  The report also reconfirms that the Arab populations still suffer from widespread poverty, unemployment and malnutrition in addition to endemic corruption and social injustice.  Indeed, one fifth of Arab populations still lives within the poverty line while one fourth of its youth and one fifth of its women remain unemployment, and that malnutrition now affects some 50 million Arab. The report also notes that some of the Arab civil societies are now ahead of their governments in terms of pan-Arab collaboration, particularly at the level of popular action and cross borders collaboration, that have surpassed in importance many of formal initiatives for cooperation  undertaken by Arab regional institutions. In many instances, regional networking was able to tackle and successfully overcame the still dispread official constraints on freedom of organisation in the region by largely using modern ICT.
The report also notes that aspirations for economic union was never achieved except through a largely unsuccessful regional trade agreement, amongst poorly productive economy, which largely served the flow of capital within the framework of specific economic activities which generate rapid and large profit margins.  As such, obstacles to the setting up of a unified common Arab market remain strong, also hindering the implementation of present agreements.
Within the same vein, the report goes through the concept of Human “Nahda” whilst noting its three main pillars namely safeguarding freedom and human dignity for all, creating a diversified productive infrastructure and encouraging a creative culture.  The report suggests a series of strategic guidelines for supporting regional collaboration towards and Arab Nahda based once more on three elements: political collaboration to support democratic good governance, strengthening economic complementarity by implementing present agreements and aiming to revive the project of Arab economic union, cultural and educational reform aiming at developing creativity among citizens so as to build vibrant knowledge societies.
In his address during the event, former Lebanese PM Najib Mikati noted that the key factors that have hindered Arab complementarity remain: the occupation of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel, oppression that hinders development, and the spread of extremism which has recently taken religious forms and which has grown because of the absence of freedom, rampant poverty, unemployment, poor education and a lack of justice.  He added that Lebanon is in dire need of Arab complementarity and solidarity from the other Arab countries
Source: Al-Nahar, Al-Safir, Al-Hayat 27 February 2014

An agreement was signed between the assistant manager at Byblos bank, Gilbert Zwein, and the president of the association, Father Toni Khadra whereby Byblos bank will start issuing a special Titanium Master Card for the members of Labora organisation who will be able to benefit from a number of privileges through this card including discounts, use of ATM machines, donations to the association upon each usage, etc....  The card allows its users to immediately adhere to the Bank's Akram loyalty programme which allows them to accumulate miles which can be exchanged with gifts.
This agreement was exchanged between the two parties within the framework of Byblos Bank's commitment to Corporate Responsibility which aims at providing support to associations, educational and vocational institutions, and trade unions. To be noted that Labora is a non governmental organisations concerned with training and employment of the Lebanese youth.
Source: Al-Nahar, Al-Diyar, Al-Mustaqbal 26 February 2014

Horeca's 21st exhibition will kick off between 1 and 4 April and will occupy a surface area of 15 thousand square meters at the Biel exhibition centre.  Some 350 companies will participate in this year's event which is expected to attract more than 18000 visitors.  The exhibition includes a number of food competition including a cooking event in which 200 competitors and 12 jury members have signed up, a hospitality competition with 100 participants and 10 jurors considered to be amongst te experts in their fields.  Other competitions include an olive oil competition in which will take part some 50 different olive oil products to be seen by 8 jurors, in addition to a gourmet space with international chefs and tasters.  Horeca includes three section allocated for food, packaging, interior design, hygiene, technology, bakery, nutrition, food, coffee and tea, consultation, recruitment, training and international pavilions.
Horeca organisaers, Hospitality Services, noted that the exhibition is now almost fully booked and had reached its 80% registration capacity some three months ago.  The organisers attribute this to the high reputation of this event which now attracts exhibitors from Poland, Italy, the USA, Turkey, France, Holland, Jordan, Iran and Lebanon.
Source: Al-Nahar 26 February 2014

As Safir newspaper published a report on pine kernel production in the Jezzine Caza where this is the prime agricultural production in the area, in pair with olives and grapes, and is a main source of livelihood for many inhabitants of the region.  The report outlines the difficulties farmers face especially in the harvesting and production phases.  According to the report, the village is keen on preserving its pine trees and reforestation is carried out annually.  Residents also go to neighboring villages, 7haytoura, Z7helti, and Bkasseen, where they also invest in pine planting and production as pine kernels are known as the “white gold” in view of the high selling price and especially since the Syrian crisis which halted the import of Turkish and Syrian pine kernels into Lebanon.  The latter situation directly resulted in increased sales of Lebanese production to Turkey and even Europe.  This has further pushed prices up which have reached LBP 100,000 per kilo as demand has exceeded supply.  Harvest this year faces grave problems following the advent of the Alexa storm which destroyed pine trees branches thus decreasing the expected harvests for this year and the following one.
Although pine trees do not require much maintenance, the value chain is quite expensive according to Um Rami who was interviewed by As Safir.  Um Rami and her children started picking up pine kernels some three years ago.  She describes this work as very much individual in nature with the absence of any input from agricultural organization or experts.  Um Rami laments the paucity of expert labor thus causing the cost of Syrian labor to increase to LBP 100,000 per day in addition to providing compulsory health insurance given that picking pine kernels is a hazardous occupation.  Um Rami said that this trade involves risk taking especially when selecting which field to work and harvest. To be noted that contractual agreements with land owners can extend from one to ten years.  Landowners are either paid a prohibitive cash amounts or are given half of the harvest.  Municipalities for their part tend to auction land for this purpose and take on acceptable leases in exchange of allowing pine kernels to be harvested.  Sayydeh Ruhana, while in agreement with Um Rami, shared for her part, hopes for the creation of a market where producers could readily sell their pine kernels to consumers free from the monopoly of merchants.
Source: Al-Safir 25 February 2014

The Lebanese Pavilion at the Dubai 2014 Gulf Food Exhibit opened yesterday with the attendance of the former Minister of Industry, Frej Sabounjian.  The Pavilion was organized by the Syndicate of Lebanese Food Industrialists and will be open through the duration of the exhibit, which is held at the Dubai International Trade Centre, until February 27th.  
More than 70000 visitors from across the world are expected at the exhibit, as this event usually plays a strategic role in facilitating knowledge exchange amongst various actors of the food industry worldwide including economist, decision makers and experts and in developing trade linkages amongst producers and exporters.
Source: Al-Diyar 25 February 2014

The Tripoli and North Lebanon Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture opened its new laboratory specialized in quality control and in testing food products using local and regional standards.  The opening was announced yesterday during a ceremony which was attended by the Director General of the Ministry of Economy and Trade, Mr. Fouad Fleifel in addition to Mohamed Choucair the Chairman of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture in Lebanon (FCCIAL),  Dany Gedeon the General Director of the Ministry of Industry, Nabil Itani the General Manager at IDAL (Investment Development Authority of Lebanon), Dr. Khater Abi Habib the Chairman and General Manager of Kafalat, Fadi Gemayel, representing the Association of  Lebanese Industrialists, Hussam Qubaiter the CEO of Racheed Karami International Expo, and Nader Ghazal head of the Tripoli municipality.
The President of the Chamber, Toufic Dabbousi, noted in his keynote address that this new facility with its equipments will help the operation of the laboratory.  He added that the Chamber financed the modernization of equipments, from its own resources, and so as to ensure high quality and safety of food products consumed by citizens.  Dabbousi added that the lab is now formally recognized by official authorities including relevant public authorities, customs and sea and land port and the airports.  It is also recognized by international instances as it enjoys ISO/IEC 17025 which is the general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories.  The director of the laboratory, Khaled Al-Omary, concluded by going through the different phases of the lab since its inception to date.
Source: Al-Safir, Al-Mustaqbal 24 February 2014

The Faculty of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the American University of Beirut announced that it will be launching, before the end of the current year, a new higher degree program in Rural Development.  The program is entitled Masters of Sciences in Rural Communities Development and will enable students to build their capacities in community development and so as to be able to better plan and implement local development projects in both the private and public sectors and in both Lebanon, the region and beyond.  The program will include a number of axis namely the cooperative and multidisciplinary approaches so as to enable students to acquire knowledge and skills and to help organizations and communities in planning various programmes.  The program also will seek to enable students to bear responsibilities as planners and also qualify them for further education, or as experts in economic development in addition to being decision makers, practitioners, and administrators whether locally, regionally or globally.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal 24 February 2014