News updates

The representative of the Minister of Social Affairs, Georges Aida, inaugurated last week an ICT and foreign languages community centre in the village of Bakarzala in Akkar.  The Centre offers social, health and educational services within the framework of the programme entitled “strengthening the participation of women in local governance and development” and which is implemented with the support of the Italian Embassy in collaboration with the Municipality of Bakarzala and the Akkar Development Network. In his keynote address, Aida introduced the project through which the Ministry is seeking to strengthen the role of women in decision making at the local and national level as well as empowering women and encouraging them to engage in public life and to access decision making positions.  As such, the Ministry has funded a number of small projects which are expected to contribute to strengthen gender equality at the local level.  Aida also noted that a women sport center was inaugurates in Jouma three weeks ago.  In addition, the Ministry has developed a new vision to address women and equality issue namely in mainstreaming gender in plans and programmes as an approach seeking to understand the needs of the communities as well as invest to build individual capacities in order to achieve active participation in development. He also considered that the starting point for women’s representation is at the level of women’s participation in local community councils which is likely to achieve community development and addressed the needs of both women and men in the community.
Source: Al-Nahar 3 February 2014

An opinion poll conducted by Bayt.com and YouGov about the preferred work opportunities in MENA, revealed that Lebanese prefer working in the banking sector in view of the career advancement possibilities it offers.  The poll which covered 7370 respondents in the Arab countries showed that 41% of the Lebanese preferred banking and 25% preferred ICT.

The opinion poll further indicated that women in Lebanon tend to favor banking and finance (49% of respondents) followed by education (45%), and then advertisement, media, PR, marketing and publishing (43%).  The poll also revealed that the public sector does not attract human resources in Lebanon as opposed to other countries as only 18% of women respondents in Lebanon said that they preferred working in that sector compared to 55% in Bahrain and 48% in UAE.  In Lebanon, this was justified by the fact that the public sector provides the worst employment package and because of long delays in the process of recruitment and appointment into the public sector. Lebanese respondents were also the most hesitant in terms of changing their careers in view of the difficult economic circumstances and the fear of loss of income.

Source: Al-Hayat, Al-Diyar 31 January 2014

To review the complete report, please click the following link: Top Industries in the Middle East and North Africa Survey

CERD organised in collaboration with DPNA a meeting with the media to share their joint project seeking to mainstream the concept of entrepreneurship in pre-university educational curricula as well as in vocational training programmes.  Osama Ghoneim, the president of the vocational and technical education at CERD presented the broad strokes of the project whilst highlighting that it is still in its pilot phases in a number of public schools which have already mainstreamed entrepreneurship in economics which was renamed "entrepreneurship and economics".

The president of CERD, Leila Fayyad, noted that the scientific implementation of the project will be through activities focusing on the main principles of entrepreneurship for the complementary level whilst they will focus on life skills for the secondary levels and will delve further in depth with the subject at university level.  She also added that the project is in two parts: teaching entrepreneurship at schools and spreading the culture of entrepreneurship win the community and with the aim of realising a tangible social change within ten years.

The DPNA project manager, Rami Shamma, pointed out to data included in a report issued by Central Bank which shows that 91% of investments in the private sector are concentrated in Beirut and Mount Lebanon whilst the share of South Lebanon, the Beqaa and the North in investment is only 3%. Thus, the organisation sees the need to spread a culture of entrepreneurship as well as support small and medium enterprises in rural areas in partnership wit the private and public sector as well as NGOs and so as to limit the migration from rural areas to the cities.

Source: Al-Akhbar, Al-Nahar 31 January 2014

The Minister of Agriculture, Hussein Hajj Hasan, organised yesterday a press conference to outline the main components of a development project targeting the fishing sector and entitled CIHEAM-PESCA LIBANO which is implemented by the Ministry with a EURO 300 million grant from the Italian cooperation.  
During the conference which was attended by Dr. Moeen Hamzeh, the Secretary General and the National Council for Scientific Research CNRS, Riccardo Smimmo the First Counselor of the Italian Embassy in Lebanon, and Biagio Di Terlizzi the Head of Cooperation Office at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (IAMB). The Minister noted that sea fishing constitutes a small percentage of the GDP despite the length of the Mediterranean coastline and basically since relies on rudimentary techniques.  The sector employs some 7000 fisherfolk using no more than 250 small old boats.  The Minister stressed the need for further efforts by both the private and public sectors to develop marine fishing especially since Lebanon produces only 10% of its total fish consumption.  The sector currently suffers from many serious problems such as water pollution, illegal fishing which result in the depletion of the fish stock.
Hajj Hassan also added that, years ago, he submitted a project to the Cabinet for a cost of USD 8 million and which is based on three main axis namely: replacing old equipments, abolishing fishing during the reproduction seasons, providing fisherfolks with compensations during the idle seasons in addition to including some 7000 fisherfolk families in the National Social Security Fund.
Source: Al-Safir, Al-Nahar 30 January 2014

Within the framework of its EU EuroMed@Change project, the Arab Open University organised a second workshop entitled “Intellectual Property and its Impact on the Economy”.  The event was organised at the Antelias campus for the purpose of stimulating and supporting creativity which will contribute to strengthening the national economy and in order to protect creators through raising awareness on the importance of intellectual property and the impact of this issue on the individual and society as well as its positive effect on the national economy and private sector.
The workshop included four components; in the first the lawyer Nisrine Haddad from Sader law firm gave a presentation about copyrights and confidential information and its impact on private companies.  As part of the second component, AOU business instructor, Dr. Saher Annan discussed how to mainstream intellectual property in corporate strategic planning.
The third component included a presentation by legal expert on intellectual property at the Ministry of Economy and Trade, Wissam Ameel, which focused on mechanisms for obtaining intellectual copyrights and registering trademarks and copyrights whilst Kawkab Sinno from Brand Protection Group underscored in the last component the importance of awareness raising within all strata in society and highlighted various issues of health risks associated with counterfeit medicines and food products as well as health hazards on consumers, companies and the states as a result of decrease in investments.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Nahar, 30 January 2014

The follow-up committee of the organizations represented in the olive sector met yesterday to respond to allegation about contamination in local olive oil.  The meeting was held upon the invitation of the president of the association of olive farmers in Kura, George Constantine Inati, who strongly emphasised that both Palestinian and Lebanese olive oils are considered to be amongst the five best in the world based on the findings of several research centres.  He added that the Lebanese olive oil sold by local farmers and cooperatives in all regions of Lebanon is pure whilst imported olive oil supplies are not.  Inati invited consumers to buy Lebanese olive oil in order to support the local industry, to protect it from the competition of lower quality imported oil, and to put an end to the greed of importers who exploit domestic consumers and undermine local producers.
Source: Al-Nahar 29 January 2014

During a meeting held last week to discuss the distribution of this year’s tobacco harvest, the Executive Council of the Syndicate of Tobacco Growers in Lebanon reiterated the importance of continued government support to tobacco farming since it is a vital agricultural sector that largely contributes to social stability in the area.
The Council also called for raising the prices that farmers receive for their harvest because of increasing high cost of living, the dire general economic situation and the rise in production cost.  Two other major demands also formulated by the Council were the inclusion of tobacco farmers in the National Social Security Fund and to raising of the production ceiling from 300 to 400 kilograms per growing license so as to improve the social and living conditions of tobacco farmers.
Source: Al-Nahar 29 January 2014

The ICT sector in Lebanon has had a positive performance in 2013 despite the political crisis in Lebanon and the spillover of the Syrian crisis on various economic sectors.  These results were the major findings of a recent report released by the International Business Monitor and which has estimated the growth of the ICT sector in 2014 will reach 7.8% corresponding to a total business value of USD 397.6 million compared to 368.7 million in 2013.  This will be coupled with an increase in the individual yearly spending on technology from USD 76.3 USD to USD 80, which is expected to increase to USD 111 in 2017 thus scoring an average growth of 9.8%.  The entire ICT sector is expected to grow between 2014 and 2017 by 11% reaching a total value of USD 560 million.
According to the report, a further development of this sector will require investing in building technical ICT capacities as well as launching the electronic government.  The report also notes that the currently prohibitive communication costs are undoubtedly the key hurdles facing the development of this sector while its main strength resides in the availability of skilled and multi-lingual labor.  Furthermore, the report adds that situation of the Lebanese ICT market has the potential of making Lebanon a regional hub especially since it has yet to reach saturation level.
Economic expert Charbel Kordahi commented on these figures by saying that the ICT has contributed some 9% to the GDP by the end of 2013 compared to an average of 5.5% between 1997 and 2012.  He added that the significant investments in this sector have increased exponentially since 2012 and have strongly affected the GDP, the active labor force, as well as overall economic indicators.  Kordahi also noted that the contribution to the ICT sector into the GDP now exceeds USD 600 million if we include its direct and indirect impacts.  He explained that the ICT impact is not restricted to the level of ICT sales and employment opportunities but also can be measured in terms of improvements in the quality of services and increasing productivity of individuals and companies.
Source: Al-Hayat 28 January 2014

The Arabic Network for Immigrant Rights organised yesterday a conference on “Promoting Migrant Domestic Workers' Rights by Addressing the Migration Continuum between Origin Country and Lebanon” during which the Minister of Labor, Selim Jreissati, declared that his Ministry has introduced a number of new measures aiming to regulate the process of migration of foreign domestic workers.  These new measures include: the ratification of bilateral conventions with host countries, developing a guidebook in collaboration with the ILO, and the setting up of a national steering committee of 30 partners and stakeholders from relevant Ministries, the ILO, NGOs, employers and employees.  Jreissati also noted that his Ministry is currently working o n a new law for migrant workers and where the term “sponsor” will be replaced by “employer”.  The Ministry is also developing a new standard and certified contract which will be available in Arabic, French and English. Furthermore and at a later stage, the national language of the sending countries will be included so that migrant workers will be able to read the content of their contract before signing it.
Source: Al-Akhbar, Al-Diyar 28 January 2014

The Director of the Economic Development and Globalization Division at UN-ESCWA, Dr. Abdullah Dardari, confirmed during a media seminar that was held last week at the UN House, that the influx of Syrian labor into Lebanon has raised unemployment particularly amongst unskilled young laborers, a category which is usually the main victim of unemployment. Nevertheless, this phenomenon also triggered an increase in the average growth rate since it provided local entrepreneurs with cheap labor.  
Dardari, who was speaking during an event was convened by ESCWA to discuss “World Economic Situation and Prospects 2014”, predicted an increase in the GNP from 1.3% in 2013 to 2.4% in 2014, and from 3.2% in 2013 to 3.9% in 2014 in Jordan, stating that these figures need to be considered with caution in view of the side-effects caused by a 25% increase in residents in Lebanon and 15% in Jordan. As for the overall economic and development situation in the region, Dardari concluded that the geo-political stress related to the Syrian situation, will continue to negatively impact the neighboring countries.
Within the same vein, the Minister of Economy and Trade, Nicolas Nahhas, highlighted during the meeting the inability of Lebanon to absorb the influx of labor as Lebanon can only creates 3000 jobs a year whereas 25000 are needed in normal situations.
For her part, Sandra Sino of ESCWA highlighted in more details the negative impact of the Syrian crisis on the GDP and GDP per capita of Lebanon while exacerbating the social, educational, employment and health difficulties, and resulting in an increase in the rent levels for small apartments and in the cost of land transport which affected both exports and imports. She also pointed out to the steep decrease in the numbers of tourists, and revealed that some USD 11 billion of Syrian funds entered Lebanon, but only a mere USD 1 billion was effectively employed in the Lebanese economy.  She called on the government to put in place the appropriate economic policies to avoid disasters, raising serious alarms about the capacity of the country to absorb the increasing number of displaced and expecting unemployment to reach 24% in 2014.
Source: Al-Safir, Al-Nahar, Al-Diyar 25 January 2014