It is time for an economic approach that is different from that of a quarter century ago.
A talk that has been repeated by every official and economist for years, but without any translation, application or even attempt!
The serious question is why Lebanon does not adopt an economic plan that does the productive sectors in it and returns it to a normal country by economic and labor standards? Is it a genius idea? Or are they cruel wonders? Or is it an axiom of the axioms of nation building?
In the economy, there are no ready recipes, it is true, but general principles and laws based on patterns, but certainly it is a science whose approaches are subject to interests. The issue is not a compromise but a starting point of interest, class, sector and class of course.
The reality in Lebanon is that the level reached by the structural crisis in the economy is threatening all the social components. Today, it is in the interest of all to create a natural economy, not distorted, because all the previous margins have been eroded, threatening everyone to continue the model and the loss of each social force varies according to its location and strength. But one of them is written for her to survive.
Solutions can start large and reach all levels and wait for vision, plan, mechanism and consensus, which is excellent, and can begin solutions simple but effective and influential in multiple locations waiting for plans and resolve positions, but it is important to start work from a point in a specific time.
Today, Lebanon faces monetary and financial pressure, which deals with it with high efficiency, albeit at a great cost. The reason is that its economy is exposed to the outside world in the sense of its permanent need for hard currency. Between annual debt service and foreign exchange insurance needs to secure imports of various kinds, including oil, medicine and others, Lebanon needs billions of dollars annually. Which comes only from production, tourism, quality services or from transfers and other debts.
This bill increases year after year and the need for hard currency is also increasing.
Lebanon imports medicines worth $ 1 billion and $ 200 million a year. About $ 75 million is used to sell medicines in Lebanon for about $ 25 million and the rest is exported. Lebanon can not make $ 200, 300 or $ 500 million in a short period of time if some legislation is amended or incentives are adopted. The state has made it a priority rather than buying from Jordan, India, Egypt and other countries because most of the imports are from countries similar to Lebanon.
Lebanon imports hundreds of millions of dollars worth of olive oil, which is produced annually from olive oil or is needed by the army or elsewhere. There is no possibility of using it for production and to reduce imports.
Lebanon imports $ 72 million, of which 12 million is from Saudi Arabia and the remainder is mostly from the Netherlands. Israel, for the most part, can not grow flowers, even if it amounts to half the need.
The problem is not the markets and the search for them. This Lebanese market is present and its figures are clear, but the procedures and incentives are natural, not irrational.
Each measure eases the import bill and thus relieves the need for hard currency and reduces dependence on the cash operation and blackmail abroad
Each action creates jobs and develops the economy
It is not a slap, but rather an acknowledgment that the era of expropriation is over because the country’s capacity has become limited to direct pillage or rent options. The country was an oil country
Reform starts from all available places, big and small, but what prevents the ability of beneficiaries to stop the starting from the interest of the state to the interests of the individual or group or what is called in our country owners of excellence and monopoly, ie Mafia, which is linked to politicians and rulers.
