First year results of M.LEB below expectations

Sixteen months after the launch of the program of the " Maritime Lebanese Exports Bridge" (M.LEB)", the program seems to have achieved some important results but still below the targets defined by IDAL, according to its chairperson of the board, Nabil Itani, Itani. Itani speech came in an interview with the newspaper L'Orient le Jour, to comment on the results of the first report of the operation of the program in its first year, where he emphasized that the program was targeting to achieve figures equal to twice what was achieved during the period, without specifying those numbers. The Lebanese cabinet allocated to the program a USD 14 million treasury loan in September 2015, the objective was to find alternative means for land transport, in order to address the implications of closure of the land crossings/ passes between Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, where USD 7.7 million were allocated to the first year. According to the report, the program was able to export approximately 58847 tons of Lebanese products between September 2015 and September 2016,with 87.5 % being agricultural products with legumes having the larger share, whereas 9.7 percent of the food products and only2.8 % of industrial products were exported. The principal destination of export was to Saudi Arabia which 63.8 percent of the products was exported followed by Kuwait 22.8 % and Jordan 11.2 %. In this context, Itani emphasized that despite the importance of those numbers, the program did not manage to achieve all the objectives set for it, especially that out of 217 persons registered in the program, only 61 persons benefit amounting to one third, this is attributed to the conditions that were made to access the subsidies, especially subsidies for products exported by ferries only and not by containers, especially since the cost of the ferries according to what Itani said exceeds the cost of transport by containers,  also, the shifting of many of the exporters to the use of means of marine export through containers being less costly despite needing a longer time period to reach the country of destination. On the rise of the cost of transport by containers, Itani attributed the cause to the lack of competition, since many of the shipping companies refrained from participation. (L'Orient le Jour January 17, 2017)