The President of the International Federation of Lebanese Businessmen and Women and the Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at Saint Joseph University, Professor Fouad Zamkhal, indicated in an interview with Al-Diyar: Estimates of the World Bank Observatory indicate that the volume of losses resulting from the 2024 war alone has exceeded 15 billion dollars. He added that adding the cost of the recent war on Lebanon, which is estimated at about 7 to 8 billion dollars, Lebanon will need more than 20 to 25 billion dollars only for reconstruction.
He explained that the discussion here is limited to restoring what was destroyed by recent wars, without mentioning the revitalization of the Lebanese economy.
Regarding the agreement with the International Monetary Fund, Zumkhal explained that preliminary numbers indicate that the proposed loans, if an agreement is reached, will not exceed 3 to 4 billion dollars over a period of 5 years. He considered that the International Monetary Fund program is very difficult for Lebanon, “and we know that meeting all its requirements is not guaranteed, but after all the financing that occurred during the wars, the reconstruction of Lebanon after the civil war in the 1990s, the Paris 1, 2, and 3 conferences, Stockholm, Brussels, and others, the international community and donor countries lost confidence in refinancing Lebanon, as a large portion of that money was wasted or used to finance policies and sects, and was not actually spent on reconstruction or development.” Infrastructure.”
For his part, Advisor to the Minister of Finance and former Chairman of the Banking Supervision Committee, Samir Hammoud, told Al-Anbaa Kuwait, speaking about his expectations for the economy in the next stage: “If the assumption is to stop the war, then there is no expectation except rapid growth after the destruction and the need for reconstruction. However, if we assume a solid foundation for peace and the non-return of war, then capital and money will flow from the people of the country abroad and from non-Lebanese investors as well.”
Hammoud added: “What is important is the vision and conviction that what is happening on the security front is not a fragile truce, and that the interior does not herald security, political, or social turmoil, because there is no factor that will help Lebanon restore its economic and financial health more than political and security stability.”
In general, economic opinions agree that Lebanon, due to its small size and the capabilities it possesses, is capable of recovering and advancing very quickly. Therefore, the future holds signs of ease after hardship, which translates economically into huge investments and attracting Lebanese, Arab and foreign capital. However, achieving this depends mainly on crossing Lebanon to permanent safety and ending the state of wars, especially the wars of others on its soil.
In a related context, the head of the Engineers Syndicate in Beirut, Fadi Hanna, said in an interview with Al-Anbaa Kuwait: “The sharp decline in the percentage of licensed construction meters reflects the size of the decline in the work of engineers and construction and contracting companies, not to mention that the current conditions and economic inflation that has struck Europe and all Western countries have had a negative and dramatic impact on the volume of cooperation between engineering offices and companies in Lebanon and their counterparts in the Arab and Western worlds.”
He added that the banking sector in Lebanon is suffering from complete paralysis, and there are still no clear indicators about the possibility of releasing depositors’ funds, especially the funds of engineers and engineering offices and companies, to enable them to invest them in the construction and contracting sector. He described the situation as “tragedy upon tragedy, and there is no clarity in vision, at least until now.” He also touched on the migration of engineers in search of job opportunities.
When asked whether the Engineers Syndicate was counting on reconstruction as a way to advance the urban sector, Hanna answered: “We hoped that the country would not slide into wars that would take us toward reconstruction.”
He continued: “After the incident occurred, the Council of the Engineers Syndicate took its decision to exempt building permits related to reconstruction from the fees owed to the Syndicate, based on our humanitarian and moral role, and our national duty to stand by our Lebanese brothers whose homes were destroyed, while insisting in return on obligating Lebanese companies and Lebanese engineering offices to undertake reconstruction, and not for the state to bring in companies from abroad tomorrow for the same purpose.”
