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In an interesting article featuring the making of halava in Lebanon, L’Orient Le Jour daily pointed out that the product, made basically of sugar and tahini, and which is one of the most exported domestic items, is currently facing a fierce competition from similar goods manufactured in state-of-the-art factories in the Arab Gulf states and at very competitive prices. On the subject, L’Orient Le Jour interviewed Munir Bsat, the manager of Munir Bsat Factories, who underlined that Lebanon is among the top  selling countries of the halava product globally, besides Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Bsat pointed out that the domestic production of the sweet product stands at 6 thousand tons a year, 60% of which is exported. The main competing plants are, al Rabi’, Munir Bsat, al Kanater, al Yaman, Ghandur, al Nakhil and al Wadi al Akhdar. Expounding on the manufacture of the sweet confections product, Bsat said that besides tahini which is its  main ingredient, sesame is a requisite. And since the crop’s cultivation requires large acres of land, sesame is imported from China, India and Sudan to compensate for the meagre local production (maximum 100 tons a year), Bsat maintained. According to customs figures, Lebanon has imported last year some 30 thousand tons of sesame at USD 50 million, mainly from Sudan. Bsat also mentioned findings of new studies, particularly in the US, showing that people opt for new flavors of the products containing sesame due to their high nutritional values. Yet, it is early to anticipate the plan of export to the US, Bsat said, as this requires a study of customers’ tastes and food likes and, this at present is impossible for Lebanese companies to conduct due to high cost involved. (L’Orient Le Jour, September 5, 2016)

 

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The plan of Palestinian-Lebanese Dialogue Committee (LPDC) to conduct a comprehensive survey on Palestinians in Lebanon to further the access of Palestinian refugees into the local labor market prompted strong criticism by the Labor Minister Sajaan Azzi. Expounding his viewpoint to An Nahar newspaper, Azzi said some circles are attempting to convince the Lebanese people that the number of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has dropped to below 300 thousand persons so as to play down the threat of competition by Palestinian labor. “The demand by LPDC to conduct the survey coincides with calls by Palestinian circles urging the labor minister to issue accelerated repeated application decrees complementing the four related laws of the year 2010 related to the social and human rights of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. An Nahar, citing informed sources, ruled such a move by Azzi, at a time when unemployment stands at 25% to 32%. The Lebanese people will “strongly condemn me if I put forward such a request,” Azzi maintained. (An Nahar, September 5, 2016)

 

The Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering (LWDG) stated in its document on ‎‎‘policies regarding trafficking in women’ based on a study by Kafa Enough ‎Violence and Exploitation organization that the widespread belief that ‎prostitution reduces incidences of rape is a main cause for the prevalence of the ‎sex trade. This, in addition to the male chauvinist conviction that sex is a natural ‎and biological right to entertain men and give them a good reason for proving ‎their manliness and enhancing their sex experience, in addition to watching porn ‎films and an associated desire to play-act them. The LWDG paper pointed out to ‎the concentration of prostitution rings along the Lebanese coast, noting that nearly ‎‎70% of those are located in Jounyeh‎‏-‏Ma‏3‏ameltayen area, including the so-termed ‎super night clubs, bars and massage centers. Sex hubs also operate from Byblos, ‎Nahr el Kalb, Safra, Barbara, Kaslik and Hamra and some apartments in Beirut. ‎According to the document, the total number of brothels identified by the security ‎apparatus is 13 brothels, each employing 15 girls on average), aside from the big ‎night clubs (employing at least 60 prostitutes each). It should be noted, that Kafa ‎has earlier revealed in its study that around 51% of the sex clientele in Lebanon ‎are between 22 and 29 years of age; 22% belong to the age group 30-34 years ‎while those above 35 years and under 21 years make 14% of sex buyers each.  The ‎study further disclosed that 35% of the sex clientele (the highest proportion) are in ‎a relationship, followed by those who are not (33%), married customers (24%) and ‎finally, engaged male sex buyers who represent 4%. (Al Akhbar, September 5, ‎‎2016)‎

 

In its edition on Tuesday, Al Mustaqbal daily drew attention to the growing need for diversity in the workplace, particularly with the fast changes in the energy sector, and the increasing efforts to empower women as vital catalysts for the success of businesses. According to Al Mustaqbal, these statements were made by women leaders within the framework of preparations for the ‘women in the energy sector’ event which will be organized on the sideline of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference ADIPIC 2016 which id planned for next November. On this subject, the director of the strategy and planning for the energy sector unit at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company ADNOC, Fatima Naimi, who is expected to participate as speaker in the conference (‘a marked improvement in women’s affairs in the Emirates’), has underlined the steady support she received from the Emirate’s wise leadership during the past few years. She indicated that obstacles in the energy industry are increasing not only in the region but globally, and are related mainly to financial, social and mental factors. These, she added, vary from the development of supportive institutional infrastructure to inspiring women to become part of the future prospects in the field. For her part, Eline Wilkinson, the vice president of exploration in the MENA region at Shell stressed the significant added value of women’s participation in the energy sector’s workforce. Similarly, Al Mustaqbal highlighted a new report by Reuters which revealed that women representation in the oil and gas sectors is the lowest among other sectors. Likewise, an analysis study by leading global people and organizations advisory firm, Korn Ferry, on the American energy companies has shown that women represent only 6 % of the CEO positions in the sector. Linkedin, the professional networking service, on the other hand has found that women represent nearly 26.7% of its total member specialists involved in the oil and gas industries worldwide, a figure which it described is the lowest among the sectors regularly reviewed by the organisation.  (Al Mustaqbal, August 30, 2016)

 

Pursuant to a recent feature in Al Akbar on gaps in the labor market, the newspaper shed light today on a programme for ‘merging youth in the labor market’. The latter is implemented by the UNDP in partnership with the Ministry of Social Affairs and is based on analytical studies of the domestic labor market which were carried out to identify the labor needs of various companies and institutions in search for employees. According to the study, the country is in dire need of professionals in the following trades: cooking, carpentry, cooling and heating, car mechanic, electricity, and similar industries. The project, to be noted, is funded by the Regional Program for Development and Protection under the umbrella of the Lebanon Host Communities Support Project and covers three main geographical areas: Beqaa, Beirut southern suburbs and Tripoli. Research results have indicated that the most wanted jobs per geographical areas were as follow: Southern suburbs: cooking, carpentry, cooling and heating, and sewing;: Tripoli: cooking, carpentry, heating and cooling, industrial electricity, electricity of buildings, accounting and IT, and finally in the Beqaa, where there is a wide range of professional requirements because of the development of factories and industrial plants, the most common sought disciplines are: car mechanic and electric car technician, heating and cooling, industrial electricity, engine mechanic, building electrician, hospitality, marketing, sales and commerce, IT and audit, and food industry lab technicians. Also to be noted that the project is seeking to train some 170 young men and women in Tripoli and Zahleh and 70 in the southern suburbs on the above fields. In this respect, Al Akhbar interviewed the PR officer in the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Zahleh, Maria Rizkallah, who supervises the implementation of the project in her region. Rizkallah stated that the Chamber receives daily calls from establishments asking for technicians in many fields, but the main problem, she added, is the shortage in graduates in these disciplines. Most students do not opt for these areas particularly because vocational education is generally looked down on, as she put it. (Al Akhbar, September 2, 2016)

 

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On the 69th anniversary of the declaration of the State of Greater Lebanon (Lubnan al Kabir), the National Initiative for the Centenary of the Greater Lebanon organized yesterday a ceremony to honor Lebanese women pioneers within the state public departments, Lebanon’s women friends, UN women representatives, women ambassadors in Lebanon and university scientific research women pioneers. The ceremony which is part of the Lebanese Women 2020 program, ‘Lebanon a country of knowledge’, took place at the Parliament House in downtown Beirut under the patronage of House Speaker represented by MP Bahia Hariri. The latter underlined in her allocution that today’s event is an “opportunity to renew confidence in Lebanese women who carried the banner of education for decades of the country’s history, prompting, she added, the creation of the said program. Among the honored women, are, the Special UN Coordinator in Lebanon, Ambassador Siegrid Kag, the Head of the EU Delegation to Lebanon, Ambassador Kristina Lasson, the President of the Special Economic Zone in Tripoli, Raya Hassan, the State Inspector in the Central Inspection Department, Dalal Emile Barmat, the Director of UNIC, Margaret Helu, the President of AUST Hiyam Sakr, Acting Deputy Assistant of Academic Affairs at AUB, Hala Muhtasib, the Director of Political Sciences Institute at USJ, Fadia Kiwan, and the Director General of Cooperatives at the Agriculture Ministry, Gloria Abi Zeid. For the complete list of honored women, kindly visit the following link (http://bit.ly/2bOnRNA). (Al Mustaqbal, Al Diyar, An Nahar, September 2, 2016)

 

Economic sectors in Lebanon witnessed a sharp decline in employment trends influenced by the precarious conditions in the country, Al Diyar newspaper reported. On the other hand, citing the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL), Al Diyar noted that the local banking industry has recorded a relative surge in employment opportunities (an increase of 788 employees during 2015). This rise is attributed to many factors, including: a growth in the size of banking activity; increase in the number of local branches (reaching a total of over 1060 branches); diversification of services and finally, and increasing specialization of banking tasks and disciplines. According to ABL, the overall number of employees in the banking sector across Lebanon has reached nearly 24638 persons distributed on the different categories of the operating banks: 20478 employees in the Lebanese commercial banks S.A.L (32 banks) representing 83.1 % of the total number of employees in the industry; 2661 employees in banks with major Arab capital (9 banks); 424 employees in branches of Arab banks (8 banks); 310 employees in branches of non-Arab banks (4 banks) and 765 employees in business banks (16 banks). (Al Diyar, September 2, 2016)

 

The labor ministry issued yesterday a directive closing down and suspending the work of several offices recruiting migrant women domestic workers (MWDW) for clearly violating relevant laws. In its statement, the ministry clarified that the decision comes within the framework of regulating the work of recruiting agencies in observance and respect of human rights against all forms of trafficking. The statement noted that the majority of the problems employers face with domestic workers are caused by illegal offices who bring in labor through illicit and unqualified agents. Regarding the offices that have been temporarily closed by the ministry, these are: Centina, Asia Orient, Ghamra for trade, Hassan Hudroj, Diala trading, Talal Debaja for trade, Husseini for general trade and Pro services SARL. The ministry has also decided to shut down Berjawi Co for general trade in Sarafand, Saida in the South, and has taken the appropriate legal measures against it, the statement added. 

Al Diyar, September 1, 2016

 

The labor ministry issued yesterday a directive closing down and suspending the work of several offices recruiting migrant women domestic workers (MWDW) for clearly violating relevant laws. In its statement, the ministry clarified that the decision comes within the framework of regulating the work of recruiting agencies in observance and respect of human rights against all forms of trafficking. The statement noted that the majority of the problems employers face with domestic workers are caused by illegal offices who bring in labor through illicit and unqualified agents. Regarding the offices that have been temporarily closed by the ministry, these are: Centina, Asia Orient, Ghamra for trade, Hassan Hudroj, Diala trading, Talal Debaja for trade, Husseini for general trade and Pro services SARL. The ministry has also decided to shut down Berjawi Co for general trade in Sarafand, Saida in the South, and has taken the appropriate legal measures against it, the statement added. (Al Diyar, September 1, 2016)