"Lebanon needs to spend at least $20 billion to improve its basic infrastructure otherwise the high growth the country has been witnessing will "dwindle and vanish," the economy and trade minister said on Wednesday. .....many investors are discouraged from setting up businesses in a country where power cuts are frequent, road networks beyond the capital are insufficient and communication lines are slow.....
"Today, our main problem against future growth is basically the infrastructure and if we do not sort out the infrastructure, this growth that we're witnessing today is going to dwindle and will vanish," Mohammed Safadi told the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit. "The growth that we have witnessed is more goodwill for the future rather than a real, integral growth in the economy itself," he said.... "You're not talking about less than $20 billion ... to get these areas to basic (levels). We're not talking about expansion needed for the future, just to cope with demand today."......
According to a 2009 World Bank "Doing Business" report, Lebanon ranks as one of the most expensive countries in the Middle East and Africa to start a business, with only Yemen, Iraq and Djibouti ranking below..."
1 comment:
Interesting considering this fact:
"Iran and Lebanon also signed economic and natural resource co-operation agreements, including financial support for power and water projects."
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2bf9989c-d6ed-11df-aaab-00144feabdc0.html
Word has it that Iran is going to help build two new electricity plants and help explore possible oil reserves off the coast of Tripoli.
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