Still searching for power
Yet another plan to resolve Lebanon’s chronic electricity shortage is on the ropes, thanks to political squabbling. While visiting Lebanon late last month, Georgian Prime Minister Nika Gilauri, at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Najib Mikati, said that transmitting low-cost electricity from Georgia to Lebanon “through Syria or by installing pipes under the sea” is feasible. The plan, which would include leasing power generators at a cost of some $1.2 billion, is backed by Energy Minister Gebran Bassil, who says the ministry will begin issuing tenders in May. Throughout the month the minister and Mikati were at loggerheads over Bassil’s plan to bring power-generating barges offshore to provide extra capacity. The premier believes that Bassil’s plan is too costly and was said to be preparing alternative approaches to provide electricity in the coming months, when consumption peaks. Speaking to As-Safir, Mikati said the ministerial committee setup to appoint a new board at Électricité du Liban and amend the electricity law had “exhausted all means available without making recommendations” to resolve the electricity crisis, and therefore its members were not invited to the meeting. “Let the cabinet assume its responsibility in taking the appropriate decision after all opinions are heard,” he said. Presently, Lebanon has around 1,500 megawatts (MW) available, including generation and imports, but demand requires roughly 2,500 MW, leading to rolling blackouts across the country.
US warns Lebanese banks on Syria
On his first visit to Lebanon, United States Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen met with Prime Minister Najib Mikati and central bank Governor Riad Salameh to discuss issues ranging from sanctions on Syria to banking transparency. In a statement, the US embassy in Beirut said that Cohen, Mikati and Salameh “discussed the steps Lebanon should take to ensure a transparent and well-regulated financial sector for Lebanon’s continued prosperity.” Cohen also warned of “potential attempts to evade US and international financial sanctions,” referring to Syria. Currently, sanctions against Syria’s central bank, as well as private banks with Assad regime ties are being enforced by Bank du Liban (BDL), Lebanon’s central bank, a bank official told AFP. The official said BDL is “keen on respecting international decisions and cooperating with financial and international authorities.” Days after the meeting, Salameh told Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV that Lebanon’s banking sector “is under a [smear] campaign from certain parties irked by its success.” Last month, Salameh also said banks needed to cooperate with the BDL’s Banking Control Commission to conduct stress tests following information that payments to the accounts of Syrian borrowers were becoming problematic, according to Lebanon’s Byblos Bank. In related news, Salameh also urged banks to distribute dividends of just 25 percent of profits, with the remaining amount to go to meeting capital requirements of Basel III by 2015. The governor also made a turn around in his policy and stated that banks should apply the new United States Foreign Account Compliance Tax Act (FACTA), which would allow the US Internal Revenue Service to circumvent Lebanon’s long-standing banking secrecy to tax US citizen’s wealth in the country.
Prison sentences cut
Seeking to relieve overcrowding in Lebanon’s prisons, parliament last month approved a draft law that reduces prison sentences by three months for every year served. For inmates serving less than one year, each month will count as 20 days. Life sentences, death sentences and repeat offenses are excluded from the reduction. The Kataeb, Future Movement and Walid Joumblatt’s Democratic Gathering members of Parliament opposed the law. In a country report last year, Human Rights Watch said, “Conditions in [Lebanese] prisons remain poor, with overcrowding and lack of proper medical care a persistent problem.” Roumieh prison, which was originally built to hold 1,500 prisoners, currently houses at least 3,700 inmates and is regularly the scene of riots protesting overcrowding and poor living conditions. Many prisoners have been in prison for months awaiting trial.
Chinese workers leave Syria
China’s Commerce Minister early last month said around 100 Chinese nationals working inside Syria were pulled from the country over security concerns. “The Chinese government and ministries must seriously undertake the protection of Chinese firms’ production and projects overseas, and the protection of the lives of Chinese citizens overseas, especially engineering teams,” the minister told reporters in early March. No figures are available on how many Chinese workers are currently in, or have left, Syria. Chinese workers had to be rescued from Libya during the civil war there last year. According to Reuters, Chinese firms were involved in $17 billion worth of Libyan projects before the war began, and the companies are now seeking “compensation for these projects in accordance with international norms.”
Penetrating communication
In a report last month, the International Telecommunication Union said that by the end of 2011, Lebanon’s mobile penetration rate, the ratio of mobile phones to people, rose to 72.2 percent, a 6.5 percent rise on 2010. By the end of last year, 3.06 million Lebanese were using mobile phones, up from 2.88 million users at the end of 2010. The number of broadband Internet subscriptions also rose last year. By July 2011, broadband Internet subscriptions were up 43 percent, with roughly 286,000 fixed-line broadband connections in the country. Also, according to the report, the most popular Lebanese website, measured by unique monthly visitors, is Tayyar.org, the digital mouthpiece for Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement.
Maritime border beef
After the United States said it would help mediate the maritime border dispute between Lebanon and Israel, Lebanese Foreign Affairs Minister Adnan Mansour told As-Safir that “If it succeeds in finding a solution regarding the Exclusive Economic Zone then the US would have scored positive points in [the eyes] of Lebanon and concerned countries and that is what we want.” A 2010 report by the United States Geological Survey estimated that an average of 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 3.5 trillion cubic meters of recoverable gas sits in the Levant Basin Province, a geological formation in the Eastern Mediterranean extending from Syria to the Sinai. Three years ago, Israel discovered an estimated 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Tamar reservoir, followed by the 2010 discovery of the Leviathan Basin, which is said to hold 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Israel has drawn its maritime border in the area, with around 850 square kilometers of territory in dispute.
New bioenergy plan
The Ministry of Energy and Water, together with the United Nations Development Program’s ‘Country Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Demonstration Project for Lebanon’ (CEDRO) have developed a National Bioenergy Strategy for Lebanon. The plan largely focuses on building waste-to-energy plants and the development of liquid fuels production. Under this strategy, 12 percent of Lebanon’s total energy needs will come from renewable energy sources, something that was promised at the Copenhagen climate conference in 2010. If all goes according to plan, within the next eight years Lebanon will produce biofuels equivalent to around 17 percent of the country’s transportation-related fossil fuel consumption.
Gender gap
Lebanon was ranked 118 among 135 countries on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2011 Global Gender Gap Index, putting the country in eighth place among 15 Arab states. Among upper-middle class countries, Lebanon was ranked 29 out of 32. The index is ranked by countries’ gender equality and is meant to put focus on gender-based disparities in each nation listed. On the WEF’s Economic Participation and Opportunity Sub-Index, which measures the participation, remuneration and advancement gaps between men and women in the workplace, Lebanon ranked ahead of Iran and Algeria, but fell behind Egypt and Nepal. Last month saw increased legislative activity surrounding an amendment to the nationality law, which if passed would allow Lebanese women married to foreigners to pass on their nationality to their spouse and children. Discussions over the law have been postponed because they require “further study.”
