Lebanese Republic 
Minister of Economy and Trade Mansour Bteish met the Envoy Ambassador Pierre Dukan
Minister of Economy and Trade Mansour Bteish met in the afternoon with Envoy Ambassador Pierre Dukan, the French inter-ministerial delegate to follow up on “CEDRE” results in the presence of the French attaché to the French Embassy Jean-Luc De La Juji.
During the meeting, Dukan expressed the French Government’ satisfaction as the Ministerial Declaration included the “CEDRE” Conference, stressing “the importance of implementing the necessary reforms within the three main frames as follows: implement projects, reduce the deficit in public finance to more than one and a half percent per year and make radical reforms”. Dukan pointed out that “the measures that will be taken by the lebanese government constitute a main indicator for investors and donors to contribute in implementing “CEDRE” projects, namely in terms of appointment of the regulatory committees of civil aviation, energy, telecoms, the fight against corruption, governance and the activation of the Higher Council for Privatization"; stressing on “the necessity to implement the public -private partnership projects” and emphasizing that “Lebanon does not enjoy the luxury of wasting time”.
On his turn, Minister Bteish confirmed “his full commitment to the reforms as a minister and a politic party representative” emphasizing that “that was and remains our approach before and after CEDRE Conference and its recommendations. In this regard, the directives of the President of the Republic are clear” and calling upon “the need to adopt policies different than those previously adopted to avoid achieving similar results”. To this end, Minister Bteish revealed to the delegation some of the economic studies regarding the lebanese economy, stressing the priority to address the electricity, tax evasion and anti-corruption issues”.
