Alarming statement of total collapse of trade and industry in Lebanon

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)