A port policy for all

Lebanon’s seafaring culture stretches back to at least the time of the Phoenicians. Our maritime trade has, historically, connected East to West, spreading commerce and culture across the Mediterranean Sea. It was towards the end of their centuries-long rule that the Ottomans dug out what today is Beirut’s port and, less than a century later, in the 1950s, the Lebanese government built Tripoli’s port. Today our harbors are vital to the economy and a strategy is needed to strengthen our connectivity to and positioning among increasingly competitive global markets. Ships sailing in and out of our ports carrying goods and freight bring us, for example, the latest electronic gadgets that are designed on one side of the planet, manufactured on the other and shipped across vast oceans to our stores and malls. Lowering the cost of maritime trade is and should remain a priority. Over the past decade, freight lines