As of 1992, the Lebanese economy was facing several challenges that were hindering its performance in both domestic and foreign markets. In brief, the challenges included high inflation and weak currency, destroyed infrastructure, an ineffective government, and multiple of industry specific problems from financing to technology adoption.
Since then, the government has succeeded in stabilizing the currency and has embarked on rebuilding the country’s infrastructure. Although these achievements are considered essential and necessary, they are not sufficient to ensure the development of the Lebanese economy. In fact, several economic sectors are finding it very hard to compete in both domestic and foreign countries. There are two major challenges facing the economy in Lebanon. One is the institutional bottlenecks which include ineffective and inefficient government services, corruption, red tape, and other problems. The other challenge is industry specific problems.
In light of these challenges, the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies embarked on a study that examined first the institutional bottlenecks facing particularly the agro-food, banking, manufacturing, and the tourism sectors. This includes an analysis of the following:
Upon completion of the research, the LCPS held a couple of roundtable meetings and two workshops with government officials, economic experts, economists from various universities, senior bankers, representatives of the Central Bank of Lebanon, key officials from the Prime Minister's office, private sector representatives, as well as members of the press. The objectives of the meetings were to present and discuss the findings of the study and propose the resulting recommendations. Since then the LCPS research team has synthesized the feedback and the recommendations collected from the meetings and the workshops and integrated them into the final report.
The LCPS plans to publish the survey results at the end of this year. The study is funded by the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE).