Drop in industrial exports has dire fallbacks on national economy

The president of the association of industrialists, Fady Gemayel, warned in an interview to Al Mustaqbal newspaper, of the dangers resulting from the significant drop in Lebanese industrial exports.  Such dangers will affect the industrial sector as well as the Lebanese economy in general.  Gemayel noted that according to existing indicators, industrial exports will score an unprecedented low of USD 1.2 billion (one third of total industrial exports) by the end of 2016 compared to the high of USD 3.65 billion reached a few years ago and that is before these started to decline as a result of negative circumstances facing all economic sectors in Lebanon over the past few years.  Gemayel added that there are 100s of industries working to export their products and which now face imminent dangers of closure in view of the burden they withstood during the past few years.  According to Gemayel, such entities can no longer bear any more hardships and it is now time, with the new era and the new cabinet which herald renewed trust, and thus, it is now high time to take appropriate measures to compensate for losses in exports.  Gemayel revealed that his association suggested a programme to the Cabinet that would incentivize exports through, a) subsidizing export costs by USD 60 million; b) providing operational capital; c) increasing Lebanese exports to countries from which Lebanon imports; 4) asking countries and organization helping the displaced to buy Lebanese products to distribute to the displaced; 5) creating an association to seek exports to new countries. (Al Mustaqbal, 9 February 2917