As part of its strategy to integrate Lebanon into the global economy and modernise the domestic economy, the government has been working to revamp the policy governing competition to conform to international practices. Hence, the government has developed a five-year action plan with a budget of $7 million. This plan calls for new modern legislation to govern competition, the establishment of a competition authority, and the creation of a new enabling environment by removing all obstacles to trade and investment; elimination or reduction of corporate costs and revision of subsidies to farmers; launching of micro-credit programmes for rural companies; improvement of guarantee schemes for SME loans and development of clusters for companies with growth potential, e.g. in tourism, jewellery and agricultural processing industries.

The plan includes accompanying measures: structural reforms for the improvement of the legal, administrative and regulatory frameworks (promulgation of customs legislation, trade law, social security requirements, competition law, and legislation governing State accounting) and reduction of bureaucratic red tape.

A comprehensive restructuring programme for companies has been launched in the framework of the EU’s “Euro Lebanese Programme for Industrial Modernisation”, seeking to improve the performance of Lebanon’s manufacturing companies. Thanks to the encouraging results of the first phase (2001-2004), a second phase began in August 2005 with the main tasks of establishing ELCIM as a business support organisation providing ongoing advice and assistance to manufacturers to improve their performance on both national and international markets and facilitating access to long-term financial resources.

The outgoing government’s structural reform gave priority to privatising a number of utility companies, including telecommunications, electricity, water and transport. The 2000 Privatization Law sets the framework for privatisation of State-owned enterprises. Proceeds from privatisation are slated to bring in $10 billion over the period 2003-2007, to be assigned entirely to debt repayment.

Friday 16 February 2007, by AFII - ANIMA

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