The “Regie” provided community development aid to municipalities of villages involved in tobacco growing

The Minister of Finance, Ali Hassan Khalil, met yesterday in his office with a delegation of tobacco growers and heads of municipalities in order to announce a new initiative which consists in distributing community development aid to municipalities of tobacco growing villages through the Lebanese Regie des Tabacs et Tombacs.  The general director of the “Regie”, engineer Nassif Saklaowi, noted after the meeting that the project presented by the Board of the Regie seeks to involve municipalities in providing assistance to the local community of farmers in their villages and so as to enable them to implement urgent development projects which may include irrigation ponds, water systems, agricultural roads, agricultural extension, etc… These projects are expected to be implemented within an agreed timetable.  To be noted that heads of municipalities present in the meeting had already submitted their projects timetable to the Minister.  Saklaowi noted that the Regie is aiming to include a new budget item to cover similar initiatives in its annual budget which would eventually include all villages involved in tobacco growing.

Source: Al-Diyar 21 August 2014