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International legislation threatens tobacco industry, a major source of income to the Lebanese treasury
2-3-2018
The CEO of Regie Libanaise des Tabacs et Tombacs, Nassif Siklawi, warned during the third meeting of the National Tobacco Institutions in Cairo yesterday, that international decisions are threating the sector along with the economies of participating countries, namely, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebaon and Iraq. The most hazardous of these resolutions, Siklawi said, are the discussions taking place in the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention (COP 8) and which considered the cultivation of tobacco as a climate menace. Such decisions without trying to find alternative resolutions to the problem will definitely affect the fate of the industry’s workforce, Siklawi cautioned, noting that the main concern among Cairo meeting participants now is protecting the sector in the face of such challenges. The tobacco industry in Lebanon, Siklawi said, is one of the chief support pillars and the 5th source of backup for the state treasury, making 7.5% of its total revenues (Regie proceeds in 2017 reached USD 444 million). He expressed pride that the company has become one of the most advanced tobacco manufacturing centers in the MENA region, scoring the highest point in terms of ISO 90001 standards. Furthermore, the Regie’s importance is not limited to its production of 9 national tobacco brands, but it extends to supporting more than 25,000 tobacco growers across Lebanon, besides its many development-related projects in over 170 towns and villages. (An Nahar, Al Mustaqbal, Al Diyar, March 2, 2018)
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- العربية
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