Made in Lebanon: 3,850 new jobs despite decline in food exports

President Michel Aoun stressed that he will not relinquish a national industry struggling to survive and that will support it by all means, pledging to revive the productive sectors. This he explained will help shift the economy from rentier based to a productive economy to protect the Lebanese industry and limit importation. Aoun was speaking to the industry minister Wael Abu Faour and a delegation of the Lebanese Industrialists Association (LIA) led by chief Fadi Gemayel, who visited him yesterday.  He said the initial measures taken by the cabinet to promote and protect domestic industry has reaped positive outcomes, pointing to further actions to be introduced to this effect. For his part, Abu Faour presented the findings of an initial industrial survey on the available jobs, revealing some 3,850,00 prospects in the industrial sectors targeting youth. These include 1,850,00 vacancies with specific job descriptions to be posted as of Monday on the LIA and the industry ministry’s electronic portals. In a related development, Abu Faour who was speaking during the opening of ‘Supporting Agro-Industries: A Fundamental Choice for a Better Future’ conference held at the Serail, said the sector needs one thousand jobs. The sector is very vital, Abu Faour said, and the total value of its exports in 2017 accounted for nearly 23.7% of the volume of industrial exports, but which dropped to 21.11% in 2018 and to 20.5% in the first six months of the current year. Similarly, LIA president Gemayel maintained that the agro food industries require extensive study and attention to prepare them to invade various markets and boost their exports in light of the trade openness and globalization. The industry, Gemayel concluded, is a local benchmark that measures the success of the state in the development of an economic model unlike the one adopted in the past and which has proved its failure. (Al Diyar, An Nahar, October 3, 2019)