Prime Minister Dr. Hassan Diab: "We must reboot our economy with a timely economic program based on industry, agriculture, the banking sector and the tourism sector."

Prime Minister Dr. Hassan Diab: "We must reboot our economy with a timely economic program based on industry, agriculture, the banking sector and the tourism sector."

A working session between economic entities and several ministers has been organized at the Grand Serail. It was partly chaired by Prime Minister Hassan Diab and attended by Minister of Finance Ghazi Wazni, Minister of Environment and Administrative Development Demianos Kattar, Minister of Information Manal Abdel Samad and Minister of Industry Imad Hobballa. We present as well: Charles Arbeed, Head of the Economic and Social Council, Mazen Soueid, Chairman of IDAL, Fady Gemayel, President of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, Fouad Zmokhol, President of the Association of Lebanese Businessmen and Women, Pierre Achkar, President of the Lebanese Federation For Tourism Industries, Salah Osseiran, Head of the National Council for Lebanese Economists, Fouad Rahme, President of the Lebanese Businessmen Association, Nicolas Chammas, President of the Beirut Traders Association, Nabil Fahd, Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, Walid Assaf, Head of Indusries in Choueifat and Taleb Saad, journalist specialized in economic and industrial affairs.


Prime Minister Dr. Hassan Diab -
In a speech delivered at the beginning of the meeting, PM Diab said:


We thank you all for helping us, as we are trying to expand consultations to reach all sectors, so that we can seek different opinions, since the economic paper is everyone's business in Lebanon and is not only specific to stakeholders or to the Lebanese government. Our goal is to be able to embark on the restructuring of our sovereign debt, and therefore we are in need of a working group that can reassure the international community that we will get out of the grim tunnel, so that we can reimburse any additional loans we have to secure. Therefore, Eurobond holders should be reassured when the financial advisor Lazar begins negotiations with creditors, with the aim of starting the process of sovereign debt restructuring.


PM Diab added: Of course, we do not speak of "haircuts", and this issue will certainly be replaced with bonds, as is happening in all countries of the world, and we are not the first or last country to face default. We need to run the country, in a sustainable and beneficial way for the coming years.  Thus, we need a program that can reassure the international community; it is true that we are in the stage of restructuring our public debt, but at the same time we have to restructure our banking sector, and the central bank faces a large gap as you can see. We are the first government to dare talk about this big gap, because, from the outset, we have said that we would be transparent.


We also need to set a budget over the coming years. On the one hand, we would increase our income, and on the other hand, we would control the cost; for this reason, there are many draft laws that fall within this area.
Of course, nothing is untouchable. We look forward to benefiting from your experiences and opinions, and this is the goal of these meetings as we try to expand our scope of work in these difficult circumstances. Thus, several virtual meetings will be conducted, so as to benefit, as much as possible, from different experiences, allowing the Ministry of Finance to draw on your capabilities and experiences to develop this plan.

Diab added: Today, we need, as a government, to agree on the general action plan; however, this does not mean that if we agree on it, we will not be able to change it later on; we would rather leave room for change. Nevertheless, Lazar needs to have a program or plan ready to hold consultations and help with the issue of restructuring that needs between 6 to 9 months.


He further said: With regard to the economic situation, it goes without saying that we must reboot our economy with a timely economic program based on industry, agriculture, the banking sector and the tourism sector until we move forward with restarting the economy in order to reduce imports and increase exports. Many proposals are on the table in this regard. The relevant ministers will examine this issue and submit proposed programs to the cabinet.

CONTACT THE TEAM

Contact HD Team on Twitter

Please publish modules in offcanvas position.