The President of the Federation of Lebanese Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, the head of Beirut and Mount Lebanon Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture Mohammad Choucair, launched the first fund of its kind aiming to strengthen small and micro enterprises with the support of FARO Lebanon "Le Fonds d'Aamorçage, de Réalisation et d'Orientation". The launch was made during a public inauguration event which held yesterday and was attended by the President of the Central Bank, Ryad Salameh.

FARO was set up as an initiative of the French government in order to strengthen economic development in the Mediterranean region through the creation of a fund to support creativity and innovation.  The Fund operates through a Mediterranean network led by the “Federation for Supporting Partnership between Small and Medium Enterprises”.  Lebanon is the first country to partake in this initiative after France with the understanding that the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Beirut and Mount Lebanon will be the host and centre of FARO-Lebanon.

It is interesting to note that several public institutions and other relevant bodies contributed to designing the project and managing it whilst the Beirut and Mount Lebanon Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture is entrusted with ensuring that the support reaches the selected beneficiaries as per the recommendations of the project’s board.  The FARO fund will allow creative small and medium enterprises to apply for financing to strengthen their capacity and operation as well as request technical support to prepare work plans and to meet other needs.
Source: Al-Diyar, Al-Nahar 13 February 2013

The Minister of Finance and the Minister of Communication have agreed to initiate the first practical steps towards the setting up of a business incubator which will help university Computer Science graduates to develop new software.  The two Ministries will share the cost of this incubator which will reach a total of USD 12.8 million, noting that the incubator will be set up as a public non-profit entity and independent from both Ministries.

Both Ministers emphasized the importance of such a step in supporting the creativity and pioneering sectors which can draw on the distinctive competence of Lebanon in terms of its human resources.  The business incubator is expected to attract young people with potentials and will hopefully provide them with financial resources to transform their ideas into tangible projects.  Both Ministers declared that the knowledge and creativity sectors have the potential to be the lead propeller of economic growth and of creating new employment opportunities for young women and men.
Source: Al-Nahar 9 February

Al- Nahar newspaper published a summary of the study undertaken by Center for Educational Research and Development, and covering the years 2010-2011.  The report is entitled “effective use of human resources in the public educational sector” and provides an overview of the size of the public educational sector which exceeds the supply size although recruitment continues without justification.

The study also shows that the gender distribution of teachers does not vary much geographically.  The ratio of women teachers is 86.5% for intermediate level teachers in Beirut, and 66.3% in Nabatieh that have the highest number of male teachers. Similarly, gender distribution at the secondary level generally varied little since the ratio of women teachers was 67.3% in Beirut and 44.8% in Bekaa which is the lowest figure.

Source: Al-Nahar 7 February 2013