As Lebanon’s summer season gets underway—off to a sleepy start thanks to Ramadan and atypical June weather—local media reports suggesting a drastic decline in the cleanliness of the country’s coastal waters have tempered the country’s beach mania. Michel Afram, the director-general of the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (LARI), issued a warning in June that Lebanon…
The people’s beaches
The French Riviera, Italy’s Amalfi Coast, and the shores of Greece’s Mykonos all have something in common: the existence of luxury private beach resorts and glitzy beach clubs alongside pristine and well-managed public beaches that are free for all. The presence of proper public beaches in a country is a significant contributor to its appeal…
The livin’ is easy?
A quick online search for ‘Lebanon in the 1960s’ reveals dozens of photographs celebrating Mediterranean leisure. Some show people lazing on the sand in what appears to be a public beach, others are of smiling women water skiing with a backdrop of the glittering sea and an equally glittering resort, and others still are of…
A good summer?
The celebration of Eid el-Fitr on June 16 marked the beginning of summer 2018 in Lebanon. As the season kicks off, all those in the tourism industry are speculating over whether it will be as good a season as summer 2017, or whether tourism will take a turn back to the bleak summer days of…
The art of insurance
Brokers play an important role in highly functional insurance markets, providing clients with advice on risk and policy choices. They often help clients obtain covers, assist them with claims, and act as intermediaries between clients and insurers. But Lebanon’s insurance brokers have faced several difficult years in a row. To gauge the views of licensed…
Taking risks
Adding to the misty picture of insurance industry prospects in Lebanon are uncertainties over the sector’s ability to exploit three major opportunities which are slowly taking shape inside and outside of Lebanon: energy, infrastructure, and reconstruction. The book of doubts on the purported three new miracles includes some question marks if the industry will be…
In the fog
Assessing the insurance industry of Lebanon at the current junction of global insurance challenges, regional vagaries, domestic economic hurdles, and the country’s ongoing political issues is not without difficulty. Just as with the national economy, there are hopes and interesting prospects, but they are mainly just over the horizon—whether in the reconstruction of war-torn Syria…
A roadmap for 2018
This article was originally published in print on February 2, 2018 as part of Executive’s special report on oil & gas. At the end of January, Lebanon signed oil and gas Exploration and Production Agreements (EPA) with a consortium of companies composed of France’s Total (as operator), Italy’s Eni, and Russia’s Novatek. The consortium had…
Q&A with LPA
Lebanon is approaching a milestone nearly eight years in the making. In December, cabinet awarded two separate exploration licenses to a consortium of three companies: France’s Total (the operator), Italy’s Eni, and Russia’s Novatek. Contracts were signed at the end of January, leaving the consortium and the government about one year for preparatory work ahead…
One eye open
In the midst of Lebanon’s first offshore oil and gas licensing round, the Lebanese Oil and Gas Initiative (LOGI), an independent NGO aiming to develop a network of Lebanese oil and gas experts, commissioned a study about the 52 companies that had prequalified to bid. This research allowed LOGI to evaluate the companies based on…