“I’ll be glad if my watch could stop today,” said Jacque Sarraf, chairman of Malia Holding and former head of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists (ALI). “The year 2004 offers a vision of turmoil regionally and locally.” Lebanon in 2004 will have to elect a new president or renew the mandate of President Emile Lahoud and hold municipal elections, two big political events that could shake the economy, said Sarraf. “If you look in the region, there is no war but there is also no peace in Iraq. New problems are emerging in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, with increased threats to Syria and Iran,” he added. For the record, official government figures show that 418 new industrial units were created up to September 2003, while industrial exports in the first three quarters of the same year increased by 20% from the same period 2002. However, industrialists are not celebrating.
