News

“Nahar al Shabab” organised in collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation a training workshop which was held in 7arissa within the framework of the LYLOT-2 programme which seeks to train young people from different political allegiances and regions in areas of communication, conflict resolution, positive change and implementation of development projects.
One of the organizers of the workshop belonging to Nahar al Shabab, Mario Ghorayeb, clarified that the training which targeted 75 people aims to develop policies for addressing daily needs. It also intended to create opportunities for the youth to interact with each other and exchange expertise and knowledge. The first training session focused on communication and conflict resolution and included discussions and viewing of short films on the communication skills.  The second session included a 1.5 hours test during which participants were asked to respond to a question on the power of civil society and local problems.  The third session focused on decentralisation, its pros and cons and the challenges towards its implementation. The event was concluded with an evaluation session after which 25 people will be selected to participate in the second stage of the project.
Source: Al-Nahar 19 June 2014

Carnegie Middle East Center launched yesterday the ESCWA report entitled “Arab Integration: A 21st Century Development Imperative” during a celebration held at the Phoenicia Hotel with the participation of former PM Fuad Siniora, MP Bahia Hariri, in addition to the EU representative in Lebanon, Angelina Eichhorst and other participants who all stressed that the paths to Arab integration are no longer a luxury or optional but rather an urgent necessity at the level of the region.

According to the ESCWA report, simple mechanisms such decreasing transportation costs and increasing the size of labour exchange amongst Arab countries are likely to increase Arab gross national product by more than USD 750 billion within just a few years and will create more than 6 million new work opportunities.  The report also noted that one fifth of the Arab population lives under the poverty line and one third suffer from illiteracy.  Furthermore, Arab youth population suffers the highest rate of unemployment in the world and women have the lowest economic participation rate.  The report also indicated that malnutrition is rampant amongst 50 million Arabs and the number of children threatened to die from hunger reaches 500000 children in Yemen and one million in Somalia.  In addition, the report refers to the very high number of displaced people and fatal casualties in Syria, Iraq and other countries in the region.  The report pointed out to that after decades of development, the Arab region has not succeeded in diversifying its economies and today is less industrialized than what it was in the 1960s while its scientific production accounts for hardly 1% of global production.

The report provided a new analytical strategic vision of Arab integration and highlighted the major problems that undermine regional integration.  The report also focuses on past internal, external, regional and international failures.  The executive secretary at the ESCWA in Beirut, Rima Khalaf noted that the report rests on three pillars namely: 1) political cooperation among Arab countries that support democratic governance. 2) Deepening economic integration starting with implementing Arab integration activities leading to Arab economic unity that would work to achieve Arab countries’ economic prosperity and that of their citizens. And 3) educational and cultural reform to revive creativity and free mind sets from extremism and despotism.

Source: Al-Safir 19 June 2014

A livelihood development project entitled “Local Development Project”, supported by Italian Cooperation and CTM Onlus, inaugurated last Saturday an exhibition of traditional local products in Tyre.  The event was attended by Palma D'Ambrosio, the First Secretary at the Italian Embassy, as well as representatives of the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment. During the opening ceremony D'Ambrosio noted that this annual event which will continue until 30 September, aims at contributing to the marketing and developing local products in South Lebanon and consequently to play an important role in local development.  She added that this is a special initiative which offers an opportunity for developing the skills of cooperatives in the region and improving their production.  Some 25 local cooperatives, association and business women, have benefited from the skill building workshops that were organised by the Italian Association CTM Onlus in collaboration with Tyros Local Action Group (Tyros LAG) and NOWARA.

Source: L’Orient Le Jour 19 June 2014

 

The Daily Star newspaper published last Monday an article about Nada Abdelsater-Abusamra, the international lawyer who represented the interests of the victims of the Feb. 14, 2005, attack that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others. Abdelsater is also the chairperson of the Lebanese Transparency Association (LTA), a member of the Maronite League, a managing partner of ASAS Law Firm, and a former law lecturer at the American University of Beirut.
As a young woman, Abdelsater took part in community service through distributing books to schoolchildren who could no longer afford them because the civil war caused a steep devaluation of the Lebanese currency.  She also organised various social activities for war orphans. In 1994, she joined the law program at St. Joseph University, and later earned her Master of Law degree at Harvard. She passed the New York bar exam and returned to Lebanon in 2000, where she married and had three children with her husband, Walid Abu-Samra.
As to how she manages to balance her many responsibilities as well as spend time with her children, she says that she gets a lot of help from her mother-in-law, but she added that private companies should work harder to help women, for instance, by offering daycare services to give them the opportunity to be on par with men in the professional world. Nonetheless, she concluded by saying that a work-life balance is not the only challenge facing working women. Arab society often tends to see women simply as feminine, without acknowledging their professionalism. Abdelsater added that men, everywhere, are often condescending at first when addressing women colleagues and some are insecure in the presence of highly qualified women.
Source: The Daily Star 17 June 2014

A workshop aiming to strengthen the development capacities of Tripoli was held yesterday at the Syndicate of Engineers under the auspices and with the presence of former PM Siniora upon the invitation of Abdel Ghani Kabbara, former PM Saad al Hariri advisor for North Lebanon affairs.
Kabbara headed the first axis of the workshop which focused on the planned development projects in Tripoli. He spoke about the city’s special economic zone whilst highlighting the importance of linking the region to neighboring countries via land routes and highways, which would decrease production costs.  He also referred to various tax waivers which would increase competitiveness.  Kabbara added that such measures would create incentives to foreign investors to invest in Lebanon thus creating job opportunities resulting in invigorating economic activity in Tripoli and the North especially via the Tripoli port, the Rashid Karameh International Exhibition Centre, the railway and the René Mu2awad airport.
Ogero’s CEO, Abdel Menhem Yussef, described the central role that Tripoli can play in developing and improving the digital economy as well as communication services in Lebanon.  Tripoli’s municipal head Nader Ghazal headed the second axis which focused on Tripoli’s infrastructure and basic services.
At the end of the workshop, former PM Siniora noted that the government cannot be blamed for all ills as it is not able to assume all burdens and everybody should work together.  He added that there are many things that CSOs and the public sector must do.
Source: Al-Diyar 17 June 2014

As Safir newspaper published a report about the commercial activity which is picking up, albeit slowly, after the formation of the new government and the stable security situation.  According to merchants in Hamra, Mar Elias, Jdaideh and Zalka, that As Safir visited, activity has increased by some 30% compared to the same period a year ago and especially after three years of regular decline during which tens of shops were closed and thousands of workers were discharged in order to reduce operational cost and as a result of a 60% overall decrease in commercial activity (according to the sources of the Beirut merchants association).
Despite this small increase in commercial activities, the heads of the merchants associations in Hamra, Mar Elias, Jdaideh and Zalka noted that they have yet to see an effective comeback of Gulf visitors although many GCC countries have formally lifted their travel ban on Lebanon.  They added that the commercial activity declined drastically in the past few years and any current improvement is small compared to the previous decline that affected small and large establishments.  Merchants hoped for a speedy recovery of the economic activity as well as the rapid comeback of GCC tourists during Ramadan.
Source: Al-Safir 17 June 2014

The women sector of the Fikr wa Hayat organized yesterday in Be7nine in Danniyeh a workshop on the family violence law within the framework of it Women Empowerment III project which the organization is implementing with funding from the American Embassy in Beirut.  MP Kathem al-Kheir of the Future Movement spoke about the family violence law and about its development within the parliamentary commissions to reach its present form.  He also spoke about its rationale, objectives and importance.  The coordinator of the women section in the Future Movement, Nabila Halwani, stressed the importance of women’s education so that women start demanding their rights.  She added that violence against women increases when there are no laws to curb it.  She also noted that abusers were themselves abused as this matter is related to education and home environment.
Rita Sayydeh explained the clauses of the new law and demanded that MPs protect women’s dignity with the law.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal 17 June 2014

The World Bank issued a report last week entitled “Global economic horizons – June 2014 - changing priorities and building the future”, which classifies Lebanon the 8th regionally in terms of expected economic growth for 2014.  The report expects Lebanon’s growth to reach 1.5% by the end of this year and foresees an improvement in 2015 to reach 2.5% and then gradually approaching 3.5% by 2016.  The report further expects the deficit in the current account to reach 6.8%, 7% and 7.2% of GDP for the years 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Furthermore, the Bank had organized a seminar last week in collaboration with the Issam Fares Policy Institute at AUB entitled “The World Bank’s response to social justice demands in the Middle East”.  The Bank’s senior economist, Shantayanan Devarajan noted in his talk that there is no social justice in Lebanon which has as unemployment rate that is considered amongst the highest in the world and which doubles amongst youth and reaches 60% amongst women.  Devarajan added that all basic services such as health care and education are below standards whereas the infrastructure is of poor quality.  He added that electricity is absent for a considerable amount of time in many regions in the country whereas the roads condition is bad and transportation costs are high.  Also according to Devarajan, the low level of labor intensive industries is one reason behind the current high unemployment.
In its coverage of this seminar, the Al Akhbar newspaper noted that, according to Devarajan, the root causes of the present social and economic problems is the failure of successive governments and of the political system altogether, without referring to the role of the World Bank itself in perpetuating these problems, even if partially, through imposing on governments policies of economic restructuring and shrinking of the state structure.  
Source: Al-Diyar, Al-Akhbar 16 June 2014

Al Mustakbal published an interview with French novelist Annie Arnoux in which she talks about her latest book “Look at the Lights, Honey” published by Editions Seuil.  The book tackles a new subject pertaining to daily life namely shopping and supermarkets.  The author explains that this space (the supermarket) is not just a place for shopping necessities but carries many other dimensions.  Arnoux notes that the supermarket has not gained a literary interest because it is a feminine space and because most writers live in Paris and do not go to supermarkets and to the “grande surface” which are located in the suburbs.
In her book, Arnoux speaks of the social and economic realities imposed by supermarkets and the shopping process which has codified one’s desires.  She adds that people normally cannot resist shopping during sales or during specific times of the year.  Supermarkets have also influenced acts of love as loving a child means buying him/her all that is possible.  Arnoux criticizes children’s games and the way these are marketed which are often crude and vulgar.  She adds that in her childhood, she used to play with dolls however, with the changing lifestyles, and the increase in women working, toys now include electric cleaners, make up, household cleaning utensils, etc…
Source: Al-Mustaqbal 16 June 2014

The World Bank organised in collaboration with the Levant Business Union a conference entitled “Over the horizon: a new Levant”.  The purpose of the event was to launch the WB new economic initiative for the New Levant aiming at integrating the economies of 7 countries of the region which possess significant but untapped resources namely Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Palestine, while studying the potential for economic growth once regional markets are opened and so are the market channels to Europe via Turkey.
The conference kicked off yesterday under the auspices of Prime Minister Salam represented by the Minister of Economy and Trade, Alain Hakim.  The event started with an address by the Secretary General of the Levant Business Union, Tony Ghorayeb, in which he shared the objectives of the conference which focused on economic complementarity amongst the countries of the region, reviewed capacities, challenges and untapped resources. Sibel Kulaksız who headed the team which drafted the report entitled: “Over the horizon: a New Levant” noted that Levant countries face a number of common challenges during a period of transition.  She added that these challenges included limited diversity of production and exports, poor regional and international integration in trade and investment and considerable unemployment amongst the youth.
For his part, the Lebanese Minister of Economy and Trade, Alain Hakim, noted that despite the critical phase of political and internal instability that has prevailed during the past few years, particularly the economic pressures resulting from the influx of Syrian displaced, the average growth in the country reached 4.2 % between 2000 and 3013 compared to a global average of 2.7%.  According to the official, this is mainly due to the strong performance of the service sector and particularly financial services.  Hakim added that the economies of the Levant witnessed considerable progress in terms of growth during the past decade.  These positive developments included for instance the rise in exports, higher participation in regional trade agreements, the harmonization of trade and customs laws as well as the removal of obstacles to trade and investment.  Hakim emphasized the importance for Lebanon of continuing the negotiation to join the WTO in parallel to Arab regional integration.
Source: Al-Diyar, Al-Akhbar 13 June 2014