Lebanon’s end-of-year report card shows it is the perennially underachieving student, full of promise but yet to live up to its full potential.
We end 2010 with a sense of achievement, uncertainty and hope. The achievements are there for all to see. Indeed, in early December, Merrill Lynch revised its forecast for Lebanon’s real GDP growth upwards to 8 percent in 2010 and 5.9 percent for 2011, from earlier forecasts of 6.5 percent and 5.1 percent for respectively.
These figures are even more remarkable when you consider that they have been achieved while the rest of the global economy was on its knees, a period when Lebanese growth went from strength to strength. For this, as usual, we have the private sector to thank, especially the banking, real estate and tourism industries.
But there is uncertainty. It is clear that when Lebanon suffers from acute political tension the idea of nation building and the economic development of other sectors, such as industry and agriculture, take a back seat. When people feel that their security — in all its many guises — is threatened, the thirst to create long-term growth initiatives dries up and people put their own wellbeing first. The Lebanese become survivalists.
It is the stop-start nature of life in Lebanon that is the virus in our economic software. The government, indeed the political class as a whole, must recognize that they can’t act out their regional drama in a vacuum. They must realize that the private sector, while it continues to carry the country as it has done for decades, is not immune to their bickering.
Finally, it is also with hope that we enter 2011. We hope that the state will create an environment in which the entrepreneur can focus on creating growth rather than one in which he is constantly looking over his shoulder, afraid that the country might collapse while his back is turned. We hope that the nation regains its long-lost self respect. Of course the challenges are many, but if they can be overcome then perhaps the raw energy that has come to define the Lebanese private sector will flourish.
All that leaves is to congratulate the many young entrepreneurs who have worked hard to take their businesses forward in 2010, creating jobs and bringing a sense of dynamism to the economy. It is they that Executive is proud to represent as a platform for their issues and concerns.
Wishing you all prosperous, but above all, a safe, healthy and happy 2011.
