Signed in pencil

Officials went to Paris in early April to pitch an infrastructure investment plan for Lebanon to the international community at the CEDRE conference. The pitch was generally well received by donor countries and multilateral institutions, who pledged $11.3 billion in low-interest loans for infrastructure projects on the condition that Lebanon check reform boxes on the loan application. The Capital Investment Plan (CIP) is a multiyear investment strategy aimed at rehabilitating Lebanon’s dilapidated infrastructure. The CIP is valued at $17 billion over the next seven years and includes some 250 projects—in water, wastewater, solid waste, transport, electricity, telecommunications, and infrastructure for tourism and industry. A statement from the International Monetary Fund at CEDRE said CIP would raise $1.6 billion annually over the next decade, mostly from the loans provided by the international community. More money—about $5 billion according to the CIP—could come in the form of private financing via public-private partnerships.