Reading Time: 2 minutes Comprehensive efforts for the development and advocacy for economic reforms in the MENA region are being driven by a first-of-its-kind cooperation between Executive Magazine and the Regional Office Middle East and North Africa of Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF MENA). On May 21, Executive Magazine and FNF MENA agreed to launch their cooperation by…
Executive Magazine and FNF MENA sign memorandum of understanding
Q&A with Riad Obegi, chairman of Banque BEMO, on banking sector challenges
Reading Time: 7 minutes At a time when banking is materially challenged by economic and financial stresses, and is faced with extreme criticism from distressed depositors and the explosion of economic commentators and activists of all colors in the country, Executive wanted to know what local banking leaders have to say about the quagmire and the way forward. Riad…
UNESCO survey exploring remote learning experiences during COVID-19 lockdowns
Reading Time: 7 minutes According to the initial results from a May survey being administered by the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in the Arab States (UNESCO Beirut Office), more than half of the parents of schoolchildren in the Arab region consider current online studying (whether using an online platform, mobile application, etc.) to be “inefficient” when compared to…
Q&A with Ziad Hayek on his and Gérard Charvet’s plan to overcome Lebanon’s financial crisis
Reading Time: 8 minutes The arrival of a team by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Beirut for negotiations on the national need for financial assistance under a rescue package has sparked a wave of discussions on the task. This interest is fueled by widespread concerns that the latest official draft plan—based on a paper by international financial firm…
Analysis of recent inflation using the Consumer Price Index
Reading Time: 6 minutes In October 2019, following years of dysfunctional public policies, Lebanon entered the vortex of an unprecedented collapse. This was evidenced by, among other indicators, a further dramatic decline in economic growth rates, exceptional primary deficits and a negative balance of payments, a banking sector in crisis, and the emergence of a parallel foreign exchange (FX)…
Philip Morris International’s Taylan Suer discusses IQOS and local market response
Reading Time: 4 minutes Philip Morris International (PMI), the company that introduced iconic cigarette brands to the world, is building its future on their line of smoke-free products and envision that they would one day replace cigarette smoking, according to its website. Taylan Suer, country manager at PMI, tells Executive’s readers about the company’s line of heated tobacco products,…
Pandemic brings needed media self-reflection
Reading Time: 4 minutes What is in a magazine? From the perspective of us who write and edit the content of Executive, it is a striving for truth, meaning a constant quest and never-ending chase for an elusive public good of the first order. In times of crisis, this striving for truth is often the most valuable contribution that…
Q&A with Kamal Mouzwak on the impact of COVID-19 on Tawlet and Souk El Tayeb
Reading Time: 5 minutes After being closed down starting March 11 for almost eight weeks, due to measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lebanon’s restaurants were allowed to re-open on May 4 as part of a phased easing of the lockdown. To learn more about considerations F&B operators were taking into account before reopening, Executive chatted beforehand…
Food insecurity in Lebanon
Reading Time: 6 minutes As Lebanon weathers through an economic crisis and COVID-19 outbreak, food insecurity has become a major concern across media headlines and in society. More stories are surfacing on how many families can no longer afford to meet their food needs, raising questions on the future of Lebanon’s fragile food sector. What is food security, and…
The need to develop an integrated approach on COVID-19
Reading Time: 7 minutes The real-life specter of SARS-CoV 2 comes across as existentially frightening. With the virus being as familiar as a seasonal respiratory disease and yet totally untamed by possibilities of existing immunity, it reminds many of a scary scenario in popular fiction (remember that Stephen King one about the bad dude living in Texas and the…
Q&A with actuary Ibrahim Muhanna on insurance liabilities amid economic crisis
Reading Time: 6 minutes Practically every private household in Lebanon relies on one or other insurance service, beginning with the mandatory protection of motorists under third-party liability insurance or savings schemes offered by life insurers. Services such as health and pension insurance are becoming focuses of attention as the country’s healthcare and employment systems are increasingly challenged. Commercial lines…
The Lebanese insurance scenario amid threats of global collapse
Reading Time: 16 minutes Judging from the numbers at the tail end of the third phase in the Lebanese lockdown and the start of the transition to a winding-down phase, the picture is flawless from the medical and from the insurance supervisory angle: Lebanon’s case count of severe COVID-19 illnesses up to the second half of April 2020 has…
Growing trend of individual or community planting in Lebanon
Reading Time: 7 minutes As prices of both imported and locally produced food items continue to increase and Lebanon’s food security is potentially threatened (see articles on agro-industry and food security), the old Lebanese proverb “fellah mekfi, sultan mikhfi”—which roughly translates to “a satisfied farmer is really a sultan”—rings true. Knowing how and being able to grow one’s own…
Lebanon’s refugee restrictions could harm everyone’s health
Reading Time: 3 minutes Government responses to the spread of the COVID-19 virus have exposed the extra barriers to healthcare for refugees and migrants worldwide. But discriminating against already marginalized noncitizens not only erodes their capacity to avoid or survive infection, but inevitably has a negative impact on the wider society’s health. This is undeniably the case in Lebanon,…
Confused outlook on insurance coverage for Lebanese COVID-19 patients
Reading Time: 5 minutes In the immediacy of the coronavirus crisis, the most pertinent insurance question for the holder of a medical policy is simple: Who will pay if I need to be hospitalized? The answer, as with many things in Lebanon, depends. According to Nadine Habbal, acting head of Lebanon’s Insurance Control Commission, slightly more than half of…