On the occasion of the first anniversary of the “CEDRE” (Conference for Economic Development and Reform through Enterprises), which took place on April 2018, in Paris, the Economic Advisor to the Lebanese Prime Minister, H.E. Mr. Saad Hariri, Ms. Hazar Caracalla was invited as a guest speaker to brief on the conference, to a capacity audience of students, faculty, staff and Haigazian friends.
Caracalla, who currently leads the formulation and implementation of economic policies and reforms, and is responsible for maintaining dialogue with multilateral development and financial institutions, was one of the architects of this Conference. She was introduced to the audience by the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Arda Ekmekji.
Caracalla started her thorough presentation by first introducing the mission and purpose of CEDRE, saying “the Lebanese government is submitting not only its Capital Investment Program (CIP), but also its vision for stability and sustainable long term growth and job creation.”
She mainly focused on four pillars to be implemented by the Lebanese government, in order to overcome the current economic challenge and to realize the vision for stabilization, growth and employment.
The first pillar is to increase the level of public investment in the short term, and to embark upon a major program of new projects for infrastructure investment to lay the basis for long term growth, with an increased role for the private sector, that will generate employment during their implementation.
The second pillar is to ensure economic and financial stability through fiscal adjustment that will allow the envisaged expansion of public investment within a viable macroeconomic framework with a sustainable debt scenario.
The third pillar should undertake sectoral reforms in order to ensure the sustainability of the infrastructure investments, and structural, cross-sectoral reforms to ensure good governance. This can be achieved through fighting corruption, fiscal governance and reforms, modernization and restructuring of the public sector, customs modernization, capital market reforms, and creating the conditions for a recovery of Lebanon’s private sector.
Last but not least, the forth pillar focuses on the development of a strategy for the diversification of Lebanon’s productive and services sectors and realization of Lebanon’s export potential, underpinned by an enabling business environment.
Caracalla concluded her presentation by emphasizing on the importance of the support provided by the international community, as well as on the positive domestic political developments, saying, “a clear and concrete indication of support on concessional terms from the international community on the occasion of the CEDRE Conference will give hope that the Government’s Vision can indeed be implemented”.
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