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CPI The Lebanese Center for Public Information

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website:

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Ref: 01

Date: 7/25/2008

A National Economic Plan

In these difficult times we cannot and should not allow the politicians to

decide

alone

our future for us. This is what we have done until now with

nothing much

to show for

it.

Civil Society, supported by some financial and economic experts,

should have

its say

in essential matters such as the management of our

public debt, the

privatization

process, the transparency of EDL records,

and other important

budget heads.

The citizens are also entitled to know precisely how their government

intends

to deal

with some vital sectors of the country’s economy, such

as agriculture,

industry,

tourism etc.

All these subjects should form part of a comprehensive and global

study that

Civil

Society should undertake at the earliest possible

opportunity.

Furthermore the periodical post-control of the government’s

performance in

each

sector, which is the true sign of good governance,

will be greatly

facilitated by the

introduction of the benchmarks and the

yardsticks that the

Plan will provide.

The task is far from easy but as, I mention in the attached presentation,

National

Economic Plan has already been prepared by the Council for

Development and

Reconstruction, CDR. It needs to be reconsidered and

reviewed by Civil Society and

by all the parties involved before it is

presented to

Parliament for approval.

I look for your support.

CPI The Lebanese Center for Public Information

NGO registered at the Ministry of Interior under reference 450 AD

Tel. 04 521832 Mobile: 03 149337 Email: admin@lebcpi.org

website:

http:

//www.lebcpi.org

Ref: NP1

Date: Thursday, July 17, 2008

WHY DO WE NEED A PLAN IN LEBANON ?

Executive Summary

1. Q. Why a Plan?

A. A Nation without a Plan is like a ship without a rudder.

2. Q. What are the subjects covered by the Plan?

A. The Plan will provisionally cover 27 subjects as per the attached

table of

contents.

3. Q. Who will draw the Plan?

A. Everybody: the Government, the students, the experts, the

politicians and

Civil

Society.

4. Q. How will the Plan be prepared?

A. We have described the different steps of the Plan’s preparation in

the

attached

schematic representation.

5. Q. What are the advantages of the Plan?

A. The citizens will acquire more confidence and trust in their

Government.

The

State will be able to chart a straighter course. The

Nation’s economy will

grow more

harmoniously. Lebanon’s relations

with its regional neighbors will

improve.

6. Q. What is the impact that the Plan is expected to have on next

year’s

parliamentary elections?

A. If the Plan is ready on time, the citizens will be given the

opportunity to

vote for

a program instead of a “zaim”.

Development

If we look back dispassionately at the sixty-five years that have elapsed

since

Lebanon formally acquired its independence, we realize that, in

most sectors

of our

economy, we have achieved relatively little

progress. In some instances,

we have

even backslided. That regression

shows up more strikingly when we

compare

Lebanon to some

countries in the regions that have achieved today

higher levels of

performance, namely Cyprus, Turkey, the Gulf countries,

Jordan and

Syria.

Although, during that period, we have suffered numerous wars and

fifteen

years of

civil unrest we must nonetheless recognize that the

absence of sound

economic

planning on the part of the Authorities is

largely responsible for that

sorry state of

affairs.

Every Administration that came to power during the past six decades,

with the

possible exception of the Fouad Chehab mandate, has ignored

the work

undertaken

by its predecessor and was too busy reacting to

the events of the

moment to

formulate any long term plans (see CDR

“15 Year Vision and View”

section 6.2.1).

The result shows up in the six thousand odd studies undertaken since

1983

that litter

the government’s archives. Very few measures

recommended in

these studies were

ever implemented and, worse still;

fewer government

officials cared to query the fact.

There was however, one notable exception to that short sighted policy.

Among

the six

thousand studies referred to above we discovered on the

internet at

http://www.

DEVG/c0/2000/001, that the government in the

year 2000 had

appointed the Council

for Development and

Reconstruction (CDR) to undertake

a five-year development Plan

and a

growth and competitiveness program.

These studies were later

updated in

2005 and in 2008. The latest Plan can now

be reached in the

CDR new site under

construction at http://www.cdr.gov.lb

then by

clicking on “CDR 15 Year Vision and

View”.

Unfortunately, as confirmed by CDR itself (section 6.2.1), none of these

plans,

with the

exception of the NERP Plan, were formally endorsed by

the

governments that

occupied the Grand Serail from 2001 to date and

never made

its way through

Parliament. Recently, when the author of

this article submitted

a formal request to

CDR to examine the first

documents he was told that the

public could not have

access to them.

We notice now that we have just

recently been given access on the

web

to the “CDR 15 Year Vision and View”

mentioned above. We are in the

course of

studying this lengthy document.

The country is now in the following odd situation:

• A National Plan was developed in 2000 and updated in 2005 and in

2008,

but was

never implemented.

• Government has never endorsed it, and Parliament has never

voted it.

• The citizens who are the first concerned by this Plan cannot have

access

to it.

• Without such a Plan, there can be no clear national strategy. That

situation will

result in economic stagnation that may lead in turn to

serious

economic troubles and

consequent civil unrests. We have

already seen the

premises of such events in the

recent past.

• The government of national unity that has just been formed will

have to

carry its

mission without a common vision. Its members, who

belong to

radically different

political orientations, are hardly likely to

agree on a common

policy definition.

• Worse still, the political parties are expected to enter the electoral

arena

in early

2009 without being aware of the present Government’s

Plan, and most

probably

without a Plan of their own.

• The citizens will be kept in the dark and they will be asked, once

more, to

vote

for “zaims” instead of programs. That is sure to bring us

back to square

one.

In order to remedy to that situation, we recommend the following urgent

initiatives:

1. The Council of Development and Reconstruction, CDR, should be

convinced to

release the Year 2000 National Plan, or the latest revised

version

of this Plan to the

members of Civil Society (NGOs or similar

organizations)

who possess the necessary

credentials to access these

documents.

2. If Civil Society fails to obtain satisfaction on that point, it should

undertake to

build up a Plan of its own, though that is not expected to be

easy task. That Plan

should be endorsed and supported by the

citizens. In

another article we shall provide

more details about such a

proposal.

Meanwhile we attach a graphical representation

of the

processes involved in

the preparation of the Plan and the Table of

Contents of

the proposed Plan.

3. Furthermore Civil Society should start, as soon as possible,

monitoring

the

implementation by the government of either of the two

plans. In other

words, the pre-

election period from now until the spring

of 2009 should be put

to good use in terms

of external governance and

not treated as a phase of

mere transitional status quo.

4. The political parties should also be encouraged to develop their

own five-

year

economic programs. These programs should be at the

core of their

individual

electoral platforms, thus raising the level and the

quality of

competition at election

time.

We wish to point out that the concept of a National Development Plan is

slowly

making its way in people’s mind. Two days ago, the newspaper L’

Orient-Le

Jour

related that Mr. Adnan Kassar has called for a National

Economic

congress and a

public workshop to strengthen national unity.

On the 27th of

July the daily “Al Diyar”

endorsed that call.

Before we conclude, we wish to briefly recall for our readers the

advantages of

adopting and implementing a National Plan in Lebanon.

1. To the individual citizens, a well applied National Plan will bring

about a

stronger

sense of responsibility and commitment, a hope for a

better future,

and an increased

sentiment of national pride. It will serve

to create a more

stable economy, better

living conditions, and more

employment opportunities

to stem the flow of emigration

of our youth. It

will also reduce the internal

frictions among the communities by

focusing the thoughts of everyone upon its

implementation.

2. To the Authorities the Plan will provide a clearer vision of the

tasks

ahead and

better relations with the citizens through increased

transparency,

understanding, and

dialogue. The preparation of the Plan

will reveal the need to

correct some serious

anomalies in the system if

one wants to successfully

implement the program.

3. To the Nation, the Plan will result in a more harmonious and fuller

development

of all its resources and the creation of a solid

infrastructure

4. In the Region, the Plan will allow for a better integration of

Lebanon’s

economy

in the area, better relations with its neighbors,

better cooperation in

regional projects

such as gas and oil prospection,

the protection of the

environment, a regional

common market and a

regional transport system.

The Lebanese Center for Public Information, CPI

George Sabat (Director)

The Lebanese Center for Public Information
Introducing the Lebanese National Plan