Looking to the future

  Lebanon has a long history of leveraging its strong capital base and geographical position to compete both regionally and globally for economic success. The great civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia flourished around ancient Lebanon. The Phoenicians who inhabited this coastal Mediterranean strip thousands of years ago understood the value of their geography and natural resources. They cultivated their cedar wood and exported it to Egypt; when archeologists unearthed the Pharaoh Khufu’s Giza tomb, they recovered a fully intact cedar-wood funerary barge — a testament to the enduring impact of Lebanese entrepreneurship across the ages and across the region.  Even today, wherever the Lebanese go — whether it’s Brazil, Sierra Leone, Canada or the United States — they set up shop and thrive. Different people attribute their drive to different factors. Some say that entrepreneurialism is in the Lebanese blood, while others attribute it to a unique social and geographical