Date: Thursday, July 17, 2008

                        

                                               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 an 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)

    Note: The Table of Contents of the Plan and a schematic representation of the build up of the
    proposed National Development Plan are shown in separate pages of this web site.
LEBANON NEEDS A NATIONAL ECONOMIC PLAN
CPI The Lebanese Center for Public Information
Introducing the Lebanese National Plan