Potholes and checkpoints along Lebanon‘s knowledge economy path

Those who had previously destined the ‘knowledge economy’ (KE) to buzzword status have probably changed their minds by now. The concept has had immense implications for the behavior of governments, businesses and individuals. It is difficult to make out a single unified and clear definition of the KE. In the simplest terms, a KE is an economy where the generation and utilization of knowledge is the main source of growth. According to the World Bank, the four central pillars that determine a country’s readiness for a KE are education, innovation, information and communication technology (ICT) and the economic and institutional environment. Based on those, the Bank designed a measurement tool (the KAM) which at present shows Sweden heading the race with a ‘KE readiness’ score of 9.58. Lebanon, scoring 5.00, ranks 69th amongst 140 countries, nine positions lower than it did a decade ago. Regionally, it ranks 8th. A couple