The head of the Lebanese Franchise Association (LFA), Yehya Kasaa, warned yesterday that figures and indicators are not reassuring amidst the anticipation, stalemate and the shrinking size of the economic cycle. Kasaa called for a quick solution to mitigate the repercussions that transcended the stage of protesting against corruption and grumbling about persistent problems. Kasaa was speaking during his signing of a memo of understanding with the chief of the Syndicate of Owners of Restaurants, Toni Rami, to regulate joint events, forums and workshops, exchange expertise and info, and provide consultancy franchise services to enterprises wishing to adopt a franchise system to expand their activities. Kasaa stressed that the economic impasse is complex and structural, noting that the franchise companies are the most affected in this respect. The crisis is critical, he said, and it is inflicting huge losses which prompts concerted efforts between government, cross sectoral and social entities to halt the decline and reboot the system required to maintain stability of the national economy and its main pillars. Likewise, Rami listed a number of priorities for the syndicate, notably: strengthen its role as a key player at the economic and tourism levels; follow up legislative work aimed to modernize relevant laws, decrees and regulations to the end of boosting the tourism industry, and the restaurant sector in particular, in addition to building solid relations with the partners, namely LFA. (Al Diyar, An Nahar, April 18, 2019)