Other news

A group of tobacco and tombac growers staged a sit-in in Baalbek yesterday to protest what they called official procrastination in paying off their entitlements, and the slowness of the payment process since out of a total of some 2000 farmers, only 20 to 30 farmers receive their dues every day. Tobacco farmers in the Beqaa region, it should be recalled, have decided to raise prices by 1% and up in anticipation of the ratification by the new government of the long sought for salary scale. Nevertheless, while state-controlled Regie Libanaise Des Tabacs Et Tombacs did not yet do the same. On the other hand, the minister of trade and economy, Raed Khoury, pledged that as of next Monday, his ministry will release the first batch of payment to farmers in the Beqaa area, (each batch is allotted to some 75 farmers) . The second batch will be assigned to the North and South regions, he explained, saying the value of compensation is nearly LBP 120 thousand per dunum. Khoury was speaking following a meeting on Friday with the director general of the Cereals and Sugar Beets Directorate, Hanna Amil, to discuss the demands of wheat farmers. Apple growers, for their part, are still in wait-and-see mode, as they have not received compensation for some 8 million crates, and they are planning a visit to PM Saad Hariri in order to follow up on to the decision by former government to pay LBP 5000 in compensation per each apple crate. (Al Diyar, March 11 and 14. 2017)

  

 

 

In an interesting article today, Al Hayat newspaper highlighted the flourishing offshore work sector that is attracting a greater number of young people. Youth tend to give up on the more traditional job security in the interest of a better quality of life and a substantial margin of freedom, Al Hayat wrote. Prospects for offshore work, work at home and steady freelancing are gushing, particularly in creative industries, such as writing, translation and interpretation, editing, graphics, website design, programming, marketing and data entry, in addition to the civil society and community work sectors. Al Hayat mentioned that this type of work allows employers and business owners to expect high quality services from experts without commitment to long term contracts, work insurance, office supplies expenses and related running costs. A director of one of the local NGOs for refugees and marginalized communities explained to Al Hayat that he prefers to use the services of a remote interpreter and an ad or poster designer for better output rather than delving into the process of recruitment of a full time employee who might laze around when his/her assignment is done. A human resources employee, Hazim, pointed out to the newspaper that the working world is heading more and more towards freelancing and online opportunities with the growing number of specialized e-portals that promote this kind of work. The idea which originated in the West, Hazim explained, has found its way into Arab countries year after year, albeit for limited types of jobs. (Al Hayat, March 13, 2017)

                                                                                                   

 

In the presence Agriculture Minister Ghazi Zuaiter, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched yesterday two projects to promote agricultural livelihoods and create jobs in this sector.  Implemented in collaboration with the Minister of Agriculture (MoA) and the Dutch Embassy to Lebanon, the projects are aimed at the ‘promotion of agricultural livelihoods and creation of rural jobs through investment in degraded lands and water reservoirs and development of the agriculture technical vocational education in Lebanon’. On the occasion, FAO representative in Lebanon, Maurice Saadeh, pointed out that the said initiatives shall help in the advancement of the sector and increase short-term, as well as, sustainable prospects of employment in the face of an intensive influx of refugees from neighboring Syria. Likewise, Minister Z3aiter disclosed an intention on part of his ministry to open new technical agriculture schools in the areas of Jeb Jnin, Rashayya and Zgharta in the framework of continuous support to agriculture extension which, he said, attracts farmers’ children and the poorer classes across Lebanon. To recall, 7 technical state agricultural schools were inaugurated in, Abdeh, Batroon, Fanar, Baaqline, Nabatiyeh, Khiyam and Nasiriyat Rizk. Z3aiter said the purpose of the first project is to enhance the quality of extension and help students acquire the necessary skills to access career opportunities. The project, he maintained will also enable young displaced Syrians to benefit from hands-on training programs and earn a technical baccalaureate in agriculture, which will facilitate their reintegration in the host communities or when they return to Syria. The second project, he added aims at supporting livelihoods through investing in land rehabilitation and irrigation. (Al Mustaqbal, Al Diyar, March 8, 2017)

 

 

During the past two days, the local media was enthralled with the emerging dispute between the agriculture minister, Ghazi Zuaiter, and Gloria Abu Zeid, the director general of Cooperatives, affiliated to Marada party. The apparent reason of the squabble, is a request by Zuaiter to sack Abu Zeid for refusing to sign papers involving housing cooperatives and disciplining a number of cooperative women employees. The dispute, which quickly turned into a sectarian issue, according to Al Akhbar newspaper,  was triggered by 3 files, respectively related to a housing cooperative in the Matn area, the case of high school teachers in the Beqaa and Sayidat al Najat Cooperative. Informed sources told Al Akhbar that the third coop, better known as Bishop Issam Darwish Coop, the abbot of Firzol, Zahleh and Beqaa for Melkite Catholics, was the cause of the problem. Citing other versions of the story, Al Akhbar said Abu Zeid refused to sign papers pertaining to the coop because the complex building constructed under the supervision of Ashraf Darwish, was built on episcopal waqf land. Accordingly, the law requires that the Vatican concedes the transfer of property to individuals, a condition that was not met, Abu Zeid argued. Another alleged reason for not signing, is that Abu Zeid noticed that founders of the episcopal coop in question are not the physical persons she is supposed to register the houses in their names. Thereafter, when the agriculture minister decided to withdraw some of her powers, Abu Zeid intentionally dissolved the three disputed cooperatives and appealed to the president of the republic who promised to support her just cause, as she alleges.  Al Akhbar wrote that after Zuaiter spelled out some of the violations made by Abu Zeid since assuming her post, both the Free Patriotic Movement and Al Marada withheld their support to her. It should be noted, that the agriculture minister will hold a press conference on the subject today. Furthermore, the president of the Maronite League, Antoine Iklimos, also had his say, claiming that raising the file in the Council of Ministers is not innocent, and voiced his concern over punishing what he described as an “ideal employee”, and a senior Christian state worker in particular. (Al Akhbar, Al Diyar, March 7, 2017)

Protests against alleged competition by the Syrian labor force in Lebanon have mounted recently. Blue collar workers and owners of businesses in the Bekaa town of Ali Nahri staged a symbolic sit-in on Friday outside the Town Hall in protest of deteriorating economic conditions and the saturation of the labor market with Syrian laborers. Protesters called for stepping up efforts aimed at regulating the work and presence of the Syrian workforce, warning of escalating the protest action  if their demands were not met. In this respect, while the labor minister, Mohammad Kabara’s campaign to ease foreign workers’ competition continues, the North Governor, Ramsey Nahra, seems adamant in shutting down shops in violation of the legal provisions regulating the work of foreigners in the country. The latest, was the temporary closing of 5 stores in the Batroun area pending settlement of their conditions as per illicitly hiring foreigners. In the same context, Kabara met yesterday the representative of UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon, Mireille Girad, to discuss the conditions and impact of the crisis of Syrian refugees on the local workforce. Agreement was reached as such, that the labor ministry issues work permits for the first and third categories of Syrian laborers, particularly in the construction, environment and agriculture industries, in line with the law in force, against withholding the allocated refugee aid from them. Moreover, it was agreed to reinforce the work of labor ministry inspection teams in coordination with the UNHCR and set up an electronic link for exchange of related information. (An Nahar, Al Diyar Al Mustaqbal, February 22 and 26, March 4 and 7, 2017)

The Daily Star newspaper in its issue of today, highlighted an ambitious technological center launched in Beirut under the name ‘antwork’ to facilitate the work of startups and independent entrepreneurs. The concept provides small offices for freelancers and independent workforce equipped with top notch installations. Antwork was inaugurated last January in the lively Hamra district in the capital, Beirut, and is already home for some 16 startups and 180 co-workers. According to Zina Bdeir Dajani, CEO and co-founder of the project, the main hindrance to the performance of emerging enterprises is their access to free workspace and administrative services, which brought up the idea of antwork. By offering fully furnished private spaces with printers and other required office equipment, antwork reduces the costs of these services on their users. For contact and information, those who are interested, can visit the company’s website: http://bit.ly/2mMXdee or upload the application, Dajani noted. She disclosed that the founders are looking for expansion in the Middle East and Europe. (The Daily Star, March 3, 2017)

The minister of industry, Hussein Haj Hassan, warned that Lebanese exports have declined since 2011 from USD 4.1 billion to USD 2.8 billion, i.e USD 1.3 billion (equivalent to 27%) against a surge in imports from USD 14 billion to USD 19 billion during the same period. He was speaking during a conference held in BIEL on Monday on the granite and marble sector crisis in the country. The trade deficit for 2016, he said, has reached USD 15.8 billion which leaves 33% of the GDP in deficit. Haj Hassan described the situation as “more than dangerous” warning of  a total collapse of the trading and industrial sectors. He also spoke of obstacles imposed by world countries on Lebanese exports, calling for mobilized efforts by all “civilized and democratic” measures to pressure firstly, and all other concerned parties, to salvage and protect the domestic industry and fight illicit smuggling of goods and evasion of taxes. In this respect, and in its analysis of the problematic situation, An Nahar newspaper reported on February 22 issue, the decision by the biggest glass factory in the Middle East and Lebanon, ‘Soliver’, to shut down by the end of last January, and which used to employ some 169 Lebanese and 60 Syrian workers. Soliver CEO, Izzat Kaddura, told An Nahar how conditions began to slide and cumulative losses became significant thus  forcing  closure. Kaddura blamed the government for not having a clear-cut strategy to support heavy industries that primarily rely on energy for input, in addition to the insupportable foreign competition. “We cannot face the fierce competition from Arab Gulf states or from neighboring countries namely Egypt, Syria and Turkey,” Kaddura lamented. “The factory needs 24/24 electricity to function. We had to install a private power plant and hire some 30 to 40 employees, which significantly rose the cost of production,” Kaddura said. (L’Orient Le Jour, An Nahar, February 22, March 1, 2017)

 

The Parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee led by MP Ibrahim Kanaan discussed last week a proposed accelerated bill to amend provisions of Law No. 190, dated June 26, 2010. The bill requires the ministry of finance to give an advance in compensation for shareholders in the Coop of Lebanon (Association of Production and Consumption) and is expected to resolve a social and humanitarian crisis affecting a large number of Lebanese people. The above Committee announced that it has completed an initial reading of the draft law. In light of this and of statements and testimonials by Coop representatives, the Finance Ministry and the present MPs. It was agreed to rewrite some articles of the said law in order to ensure the equities and rights of shareholders, as well as creditors and suppliers, in observance of the financial assets and prevalent laws. As such, the committee President gave the Ministry and the Coop a one-week ultimatum to return with the modified formula for endorsement during the upcoming March 2 parliamentary session. It should be noted, that the Coop was founded in 1977, but in clear breach of the law, then Coop managers decided to set up a center accepting interest-bearing deposits from customers. During the year 2000, Lebanon Coops suffered a liquidity crisis as a result of poor management and extensive investment of capital in fixed assets, noting that the financial statements that were published proved to be incorrect. (Al Mustaqbal, February 24, 2017)

 

 

 

 

Milk production and processing equipments were distributed to 60 dairy farmers at the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for Tripoli and the North. The beneficiaries from the different rural localities in North Lebanon were trained on handling these machineries before receiving them. This project comes within the framework of the program to ‘Enhance the Livelihood and Food Security of Vulnerable Lebanese Women’ implemented by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in cooperation with the ministry of agriculture and funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation. (AICS). During the ceremony, the head of the agriculture department in the North, Iqbal Ziadeh, underlined, on behalf of the minister, the importance of setting up agricultural cooperatives and ongoing collaboration with the agriculture ministry to this effect. He stressed the role of the ministry in providing support to the milk and dairy production sector, pointing out that it will follow up the farmers participating in the project to ensure improved production. For his part, the president of the Chamber, Tawfic Dabusi, drew attention to the pivotal role played by the ministry of agriculture in the national economy, particularly at the level of food security and in encouraging rural households and small scale men and women farmers to steadfast in their villages. (Al Diyar, March 1, 2017)

The American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Beirut Digital District (BDD) launched last Wednesday a new partnership aimed at fostering young men and women entrepreneurs to help bridge gaps between academia and the entrepreneurial world. The announcement was made following a panel discussion within ArabNet 2017 forum on the role of universities in stimulating entrepreneurship among students. In this respect, Ayman Kaissi, associate professor at AUB school engineering and architecture, and Mohammad Rabab, general manager of ZRE, the developer of BDD, presented the new initiative under the title ‘be innovative at the school of engineering’. The project is educational in nature and targets third year engineering students with the aim to provide them with proper skills needed to start up and develop businesses. Rami Abu Jawdeh, deputy general manager at Berytech, pointed out that as owners of establishments often complain from shortage of graduates with the required skills, the BDD decided to select 30 to 40 student interns from AUB to train them at its premises. (The Daily Star, February 23, 2017 )