Lebanese startups focusing on education technology (edtech) have tapped into the idea that as education changes, they have a role to play in preparing the next generation for the 21st century workplace. Educators seeking to prepare children for the jobs of the future, those that rely more on coding, robotics, AI, and programming—and depend less…
The Lebanese educational landscape
Despite large variances in concepts of what constitutes a good education and the curious inconsistency which individuals tend over time to exhibit on the matter, the value of education as a public good is constant throughout history and across societies as diverse as classical Greece, imperial China, and contemporary America. In our global era of…
MEA focused on local Lebanese market
Middle East Airlines (MEA) is one of Lebanon’s indisputable assets in the wide realm of mobility. The flag carrier throughout its 74-year history has reflected the varied economic fortunes, ambitions, and realities of Lebanon. To inquire about MEA’s positioning and strategic outlook today, Executive interviewed Walid Abillama, the airline’s head of commercial strategies and alliances.…
Strategies, opportunities, and natural limitations to EV infrastructure in Lebanon
Based on discussions with the two Lebanese gas station network operators—Medco and IPT—it seems fair to describe the first step of the journey into this particular private-sector infrastructure construction as based on the understanding that electric vehicles will make their appearances in Lebanon sooner or later, and that the country could ill afford to fall…
Private sector embarks on creation of EV charging-point infrastructure
The most eye-catching developments in mobility involve cars. The world is filled with cars; many of us sit in these machines for inordinate lengths of time every day. Surveys done in recent years in the United States found that the average person might spend upward of 17,500 minutes per year at the steering wheel or…
The importance of Lebanon’s macro and micro mobility
“Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog.” Adam Smith Online economic literature has no ready answer to the question of whether Adam Smith had a deep personal bond with a canine, nor if he was an expert on animal behavior by the standards…
An analysis for 2013-2018
Banks included in Bankdata’s classification for alpha and beta banks with deposits respectively exceeding $2 billion and $0.5 billion are regarded by many international analysts and local banking industry observers to represent the top tiers within the Lebanese banking sector of 59 banks, comprised of 46 commercial banks and their 13 subsidiaries. Together, the 16…
CMA takes the lead on new exchange
While the capital markets show on the Lebanese national financial and economic stage had been one that, for years, fit above all a characterization of spurned overtures and unconstitutional delays in the implementation of declared and legislated measures, such as the transformation of the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE), 2019 was kicking off with the boost.…
SME finance as driver of job creation and sustainable banking in Lebanon
Not long ago, at the April 2019 annual spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC, one of the most-touted themes was the finance of small and medium enterprises. That a flagship event of the IMF in 2019 would highlight SME banking is not out of the norm—after all, SME finance has…
Lebanese banking in times of scarcity and reforms
They have never seen the likes of it. Elias Alouf experienced a Lebanese childhood and adolescence. He is today general manager of one of Lebanon’s most history-rich banks, BSL, which has 155 years of existence under its belt, but in his living memory Alouf never witnessed such an intense cabinet debate as he did in…