A long time in the making

ENAR

The PPP law, formally known as Law 48 Regulating Public Private Partnerships, was first proposed as a draft by Cabinet in 2007. It was not until September 2017 that it was passed by Parliament and published in the Official Gazette. In other words, it took lawmakers ten years to pass the PPP law. Back in 2007, Lebanon’s public debt was circa $42 billion. Today, it has reached approximately $83 billion. While this massive jump in public debt was not caused by the absence of the PPP law, it is certainly arguable that a significant portion could had been saved, had the law been passed in 2007 and implemented in the intervening years. There are numerous benefits to public-private partnerships. As well allocating the risks between the public and private partner, the benefits of PPP that are most relevant in the Lebanese context are the following: It minimizes the financial risk