Lebanese Republic 
Intervention by Minister raed khoury at the World Economic Forum's meetings (in Davos)
Minister of Economy and Trade, Raed Khoury, made an intervention during the World Economic Forum's meetings (in Davos) titled “Public policies for infrastructures and civilizational development”.
In this regard, Minister Khoury stated that “the investment in infrastructures such as roads, ports, airports, alternative energies and others are of great importance to ensure the appropriate environment in order to develop and boost the economy. Experiences showed that developing countries can neither develop nor create job opportunities unless they establish a business environment where infrastructures play an efficient role in the production and transport facilitation process”.
He also added “According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a better quality of infrastructures can definitively increase the productivity of the human capital and hence, achieve growth”, stating that “any plan to invest in the infrastructures shall rely on a clear economic vision in parallel with a planning that serves both the human capital and civilizational development”.
Furthermore, Khoury declared that “Lebanon faced a hard geopolitical challenge that negatively affected our economy taking into consideration that Lebanon welcomed one million and a half Syrian refugees, i.e. around 35% of its population; the thing that made impossible to export our products through Syria and increased the deficit in the trade balance from 9 billion dollars before the crisis to 16 billion dollars currently. To make things worse, the economic growth slowed down whereof the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreased from 9% before the crisis to 2% in 2017. However, the lebanese economy showed a high degree of flexibility that helped confronting the local and regional crisis as well as we did not witness any GDP negative growth and bank deposits increased”.
He also said: “we are totally aware of these challenges; that is why the Lebanese government is currently focusing on three levels: to make budget reforms, implement a comprehensive economic plan and set up a big infrastructure investment plan”.
For this purpose, Minister Khoury gave a brief overview about the economic plan that will be performed on short, medium and long term and will define the productive sectors of preferential value in Lebanon, adding that “public - private sectors’ partners will take part in the elaboration of this plan while McKinsey & Company will exercise its consultative role”.
At the end, Minister Khoury asserted that the Lebanese government is about to finalize an infrastructure comprehensive investment plan for the next five years at more than 13 billion dollars concluding that “the Government is implementing a clear and comprehensive vision that will definitely ensure the success of our endeavors and lead to positive results”.
