The president of the Association of Banks in Lebanon Joseph Torbey voiced support Monday for the amended 2018 budget which carried symbolic reforms that would help Lebanon receive soft loans from the Paris IV donor conference.
Torbey made these remarks after meeting Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the Grand Serail.
Almost all ministries have reportedly agreed to slash their budgets by 20 percent, a move Torbey said was “symbolic, but [has] an impact,” according to a statement released by Hariri’s office after the two met at the Grand Serail.
In addition to the 2018 budget and taxation, Torbey and Hariri also discussed international support conferences for Lebanon.
Torbey also invited Hariri to accompany a consortium of Arab banks to the opening of the International Arab Conference, which the statement said is set to be held by the end of June in Paris under the auspices of the French president.
The conference is set to deal with banking relations in the Mediterranean region.
Torbey said Hariri was considering participating in the event, according to the statement.
“We discussed the international conferences related to Lebanon, as well as the subject of taxes, especially the 2018 budget draft law and the reduction that occurred. Although the reduction was symbolic, it has an impact. It was an occasion to invite Prime Minister Hariri ... to participate in the opening of the Arab International Conference, to be held at the end of June in Paris, under the auspices of the French President,” Torbey said.
Also Monday, Hariri met with Wissam Fattouh, the secretary-general of the Union of Arab Banks. The two discussed economic and banking developments.
Hariri also received the chairman of the Banking Control Commission Samir Hammoud, to talk financial developments and preparations for the CEDRE conference, which will be held in Paris in support of Lebanon’s economy and infrastructure.
The conference is scheduled for April 6, and the government is hoping to pass the budget before then in a bid to raise international confidence in Lebanon.
Hammoud called for the size of Lebanon’s economy to be increased and for funding to be secured in its productive sectors, including infrastructure, which he said “makes an economy a real economy.”
Lebanon’s economy relies heavily on the banking sector, in addition to the tourism sector.
Regional crises and local instability have drastically reduced tourism, while conflict in neighboring Syria has smothered the export of Lebanon’s agricultural and limited industrial production.
Waste and corruption are also widely seen as drains on the state’s coffers, while infrastructure around the country is crumbling.
The government has prepared a portfolio of more than 200 projects that it will take to CEDRE, in the hopes of courting roughly $16 billion in investment from the international community and private sector.
