Nahas and Gemayel in LF seminar entitled “No state… No jobs”

On the occasion of Labor Day, the Lebanese Forces Trade Unions organized a seminar in the Beirut suburb of Furn El-Chebak under the slogan ‘No state… No Jobs’. The main panelists included former minister Charbel Nahas, president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association, Fadi Gemayel and LF Chief Advisor for Economic Affairs, Ghassan Hasbani. In his intervention, Nahas warned of an imminent radical change in the social structure of society, he said Lebanon comprises some 1,500,000 economically active persons, 200,000 of whom are civil servants or work for the government in one way or the other and 1.3 million workers who are divided evenly between foreigners and Lebanese, which means that the current labor force is largely foreign based. He referred to a survey conducted earlier in 2011 in coordination with the World Bank and the Central Administration for Statistics, which indicated that almost half of the labor force in the country are of limited educational level and are currently recruited by enterprises of modest production capacity. On the other hand, Gemayel described the economic growth in Lebanon while noting the impact of the current presidential vacuum on this growth. He added that with the current size of the economy stands at USD 47 billion and that total bank assets have reached USD 176 billion, in a country that boasts a unique high level of social advantages and unparalleled high human capital. However, he regretted, that the present economic reality of people is far from being satisfactory, and disclosed that the Association of Lebanese Industrialists is preparing a comprehensive vision for salvaging the economy. For his part, Hasbani outlined five key elements needed for economic growth: First, a unified government with ministries working jointly to ensure the application of the law and to combat monopoly, secondly, a full geographic and economic sovereignty by the state which will allow it to collect the needed revenues, thirdly, respect of private property of citizens and observance of the law, fourthly, adherence to the policy of nonintervention by the state in the market, and finally, a high level of human productivity by institutions that comply with the law and maintain high work ethics. (Al Diyar, 9 May 2015)