Executive Magazine

Time is running out for Syrian refugee kids out of school

by Bassam Khawaja August 18, 2016

written by Bassam Khawaja

“We can’t afford to put them in school here. All my children were studying in Syria, but if I put them in school here, how would I live?” “Muna”, 45, and her family live across the street from a school in Mount Lebanon, but her children, “Yousef”, 11, and “Nizar”, 10, have never set foot in a Lebanese classroom. Instead, they sell gum on the street to help their family pay for rent and food. “Even if everything was free, the children wouldn’t be able to go to school,” she said. “They are the only ones who can work.”

Lebanon has taken in more than 1.1 million Syrian refugees since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011. Of this number, 500,000 are of school age, three to 18. Despite the Education Ministry’s efforts to ensure that all children enroll in education, more than 250,000 Syrian children are still out of school.

Research I conducted for a new Human Rights Watch report found that despite the government’s decision to allow Syrians to enroll in public schools for free, with the assistance of international donors, several barriers are still keeping them out of the classroom.

Some school directors are imposing arbitrary enrollment requirements, like asking Syrians to provide valid residency in Lebanon – despite the Education Ministry’s policy which does not require residency for enrollment. Students are also struggling to understand classes taught in English or French without adequate language support, and children with disabilities and secondary school-age children face particularly acute obstacles.

Our research found that access to education is also inextricably tied to the deteriorating living conditions of Syrians in Lebanon. Seventy percent of Syrians lived below the poverty line of $3.84 per person per day in 2015. Many simply cannot afford to pay for basic school-related costs like transportation. Increasingly, children are being pulled out of school as their parents rely on child labor to survive. New residency regulations introduced in January 2015 have made it difficult or impossible for Syrians to maintain legal status in Lebanon, and an estimated two-thirds of refugees now lack residency and are unable to move around to find work for fear of arrest.

Lebanon cannot address the challenge of educating Syrian children alone, but there are clear steps that the Lebanese government can take to address this major issue. It can revise its residency policy to ensure that Syrian adults can look for work without fear of arrest to be able to afford to keep their children in school.

Lebanon needs international investment in livelihood programs to create jobs and strengthen the country’s economy in order to address living conditions that are currently deteriorating for everyone.

The World Bank estimates that the conflict in Syria has cost the country $13.1 billion since 2012, Lebanese officials said in February. The impact of the conflict on Lebanon is real, but the refugee presence is also an opportunity to use international attention as well as funding to bolster the country’s weak infrastructure and limited services.

In the education sector, international funding is already improving a public school system that struggled even before the current refugee crisis, when only 30 percent of Lebanese families chose to send their children to public schools. Donors are funding projects to rehabilitate schools, train teachers, and last year covered enrollment fees for 197,000 Lebanese children.

Other countries hosting Syrian refugees have developed plans to stimulate economic growth. For example, on July 12, the European Council approved a measure to improve Jordan’s access to the European Union (EU) market by relaxing the EU rules of origin for 10 years, with the goal of creating 200,000 jobs for Syrian refugees. This would allow them to contribute to the economy without competing for jobs with Jordanian citizens.

At a major donor conference in London in February, Lebanon proposed several projects to bolster the economy and create jobs, including through investments in municipalities and national-level infrastructure. It also acknowledged the need to review existing residency and work regulations for Syrians, but so far, little has changed.

There is a real need for private sector engagement with international donors, humanitarian agencies and government officials to develop innovative solutions to the livelihood problem in a way that improves the living conditions of Syrians and their host communities while benefitting the country in the long term.

It’s in Lebanon’s best interests to ensure that a quarter of a million children are not left out of school here but can get an education and develop the tools they need to eventually rebuild Syria. This is also an opportunity for Lebanon to attract investment and bolster basic services and infrastructure, all the while ensuring that Syrians can afford to send their children to school.

August 18, 2016 0 comments

Another red flag

by Executive Staff August 18, 2016

written by Executive Staff

On Friday, July 1, two men walked toward a microphone to speak as representatives of their respective political parties, but not in their official capacity as ministers. Following a closed-door meeting, they declared the end to a three-year feud. A bilateral deal had been reached concerning the nation’s potential hydrocarbon resources. Lebanon was set to finally close its first offshore oil and gas licensing round which is a decision cabinet was supposed to make. After reading a statement that any thinking person will tell you means absolutely nothing (unless it’s laced with coded language only true insiders can decipher), a reporter’s request for details was rebuffed with a promise that consultations with the prime minister would be held. With that, the two men left. A fait acompli, in local political parlance. In all fairness, it was probably a stunt and the deal looks dead (see cover story page 14), but either way, the whole thing stinks.

First and foremost, the deal shouldn’t have been discussed in private by two political parties. By law, it is cabinet’s job to set the country’s oil and gas policy while the “oil deal” meeting is far more egregious, it is sadly the rule for how this sector has been officially discussed in the past two years. Prime Minister Tammam Salam created a ministerial committee to debate oil and gas back in early 2014. The committee met only a few times. Instead of using the official venue on offer, each individual minister had the Lebanese Petroleum Administration (LPA) come for a one-on-one visit to explain the sector and the LPA’s vision for an oil and gas strategy. Oil and gas is a complicated and technical topic. Imagine if the LPA gave the ministerial committee 15 or 20 workshops on the subject, first bringing everyone up to speed on the basics of how the industry works and then outlining different options for a Lebanese oil and gas strategy while weighing the pros and cons of various choices. We would have more informed ministers. The “classroom” environment would help those from rival camps see how the other side thinks, which could help avoid future years long delays at important junctures as cabinet decides on every step forward in this sector. If these workshops were televised (and made permanently avail- able on YouTube), interested citizens and civil society groups would today be more equipped to oversee this sec- tor as it is born and hopefully grows. Moving forward, this must be our model. There is no legitimate reason for talk on this subject to be secret. All oil and gas discussions must be public.

Equally offensive was the reaction to the deal. Where was civil society? The silence is shameful. Civil society must protest questionable proceedings like these. The method of protest is irrelevant. At least do something a statement, anything. Except tire burning. Please.

Weeding corruption out of the system is a long-term goal that will take time and effort. It has been grow- ing for decades, and its roots have a strangle hold on nearly every state institution. The nascent oil and gas sector, however, is an opportunity. Three years ago Executive asked how millions of dollars in survey data revenue are being managed. We were answered with a defamation lawsuit (which we won this month, for the re- cord). Two years ago, we noted a flaw in the prequalification process that allowed Mohamad Chouqair, head of the Beirut chamber of commerce, and Mahmoud Sidani, chairman of Unigaz, to participate in the first licensing round. Their company is registered in Hong Kong and they pay a yearly fee to obscure their ownership of it (Panama Papers, anyone?). Perhaps not surprisingly, the disclosure changed nothing. It is time we all wake up. This sector is being built from scratch and we have the chance to get something right. We must not squander it.

August 18, 2016 0 comments

Jewelery and watches

Working together for stronger brands

by Yasser Akkaoui August 12, 2016

written by Yasser Akkaoui

In June, Executive sat with Mick Desmond, commercial and media director, and James Ralley, head of marketing and commercial, at the All England Lawn Tennis Club Wimbledon, to discuss how the tennis club envisions its brand promotion through collaboration with luxury brands such as Rolex.

E: How do you promote your brand to the world and what role does Rolex play in that brand promotion?
Mick Desmond: We always try to tell the story that Wimbledon is tennis in an English garden, and in the UK everyone understands what that means. If you go to China or South America or the Middle East, they don’t always know what an English garden looks like. We’ve done a lot of research over the last three to four years with Kantar Media to try to get an understanding of how our brand is perceived. When you mention Wimbledon, everyone says tennis, and they know it’s a great tennis event. Although tennis is the core of our brand, we think that it is one of those events that transcends the sport. It’s about the occasion, the fashion, the food, the wine, the strawberries, the Royal Box. We are embarking on a new global campaign and over the past four or five years we have been building up our digital assets in accordance with our brand. IBM has been our partner for 30 years, and in the beginning, they suggested we try things in a similar way to other sporting brands; but we were determined to do it our way. Rolex were fantastic when we pitched to the club for a budget, which we hoped would drive up our digital strategy. When we renewed with Rolex four or five years ago, they were great in terms of taking that leap of faith with us and also have a prominent position in terms of all our digital assets. We now have the likes of Arsenal Football Club and the NFL coming to us about digital assets. We swept up all the digital awards at BT Sports awards, as well as many others. We’ve come a long way, but we’re never satisfied. I think that this is the strength of Wimbledon. We have an obsession with wanting to better ourselves.
Last Friday, at the player meeting, our head of player liaison showed the players a film called The List. The title is a reference to a list of things that need fixing, which comes from both the players and the staff. By showing the film, we were able to say “look, we do really cover the list.” Every year we have a list of about 2,000 items, which comes from everyone and we act upon them. We look at them in terms of priority, and see how we can better ourselves all the time. That’s the essence of the brand’s campaign. About 20 or 30 years ago, understandably, the club was obsessed with the site itself. This still remains, but what we are now trying to do is take everything that is world class about this event and bring it to a worldwide audience. We don’t just rely on our broadcaster, we try and work with our partners to push the Wimbledon brand. The essence is very much the pursuit of greatness, by striving for perfection. We have 13 partners and Rolex is probably one of the most important, which works fantastically for them. It’s a platform, which helps us reach a wider audience. We have 10 media partners, which deliver about 85 percent of our global audience, so we don’t have to talk to hundreds of different broadcasters. We’ve sat down with them over the past 18 months and spoken to them and started to talk with them about how we can work [together] more closely. Our media partners are the biggest communicators of our brand so we’ve been very enthusiastic about how much they want to get involved. After the championships we will be visiting our partners and doing a full review. They all have a thirst for more content. Beyond the tennis, they want to know how the menus are prepared, how the Royal Box works, how do the strawberries get delivered, how do you make the perfect Pimms. There are so many different stories that we can give them to provide them the context and allow them to create a much richer narrative about the championships. Tennis is still at the core. We never want to stop being the biggest and best tennis event in the world.
James Ralley: This is the first year that we have created content and our ambition is to use this as a platform and over the next five to 15 years invest more particularly in the men’s game, and to make the brand and audience grow. Hopefully this will inspire people to play the game.

E: Your job must be difficult when you don’t have big characters playing in the games?
MD: I used to come to Wimbledon a lot, and when you had players like [Boris] Becker, [John] McEnroe or even further back with the likes of people like [Jimmy] Connors. And now when someone like Roger Federer arrives on the scene with a ponytail and is followed by players like Rafael [Nadal], you wonder what they are going to be like. What we’re looking for is the next great wave of players to come through. We are like a great theater; we try to present the best global stage for these fantastic talents to play on. We don’t know who the actors or actresses are going to be, but we try to provide the best stage for them to play on.
JR: We don’t compete against the other Grand Slams, we actually work together. It’s all about how we can inspire people to come and play and want to be a professional tennis player. We hope the uniqueness of these events will inspire people.
MD: We do think that the more perfect the stage, the more inspiration they have. The players say that they were inspired by watching Wimbledon as children. We just try to create the best possible platform that we can.

E: What other values do you and Rolex share?
MD: We both have a huge heritage and an attention to detail. Like Rolex, we perceive ourselves as offering a luxury experience. Everyone has a visit to Wimbledon on their bucket list, much like owning a Rolex. People aspire to have a Rolex. There have been plenty of well-known, global brands which have approached us to be partners and we’ve simply said no. We respect the Rolex brand and they respect us, and I think that makes us work in harmony.
JR: There is a quiet innovation in both brands. There is a phrase that we use quite a lot which is that Wimbledon is always changing, but staying the same. We feel that Rolex has a similar philosophy.
MD: We understand what Rolex are trying to achieve. We’ve both been around for a long time. It’ll be Wimbledon’s 150th anniversary in 2018. I think the other similarity that we have is that we are both fairly private. We don’t go and shout about things. We have a private membership club, who basically control the championship and the club. Like Rolex, we don’t talk about our figures or revenues. We both have foundations and social responsibilities which we spread across the regions. So we have a lot of similarities and you can see why it is such a great synergy. I think it’s tradition blended with innovation. We had a very good press session with IBM, who spoke about what you can learn from your past. He said that the brand which protects its heritage best is the brand that keeps innovating. Complacency is your worst enemy. You have to keep moving on. You can’t sit still.

E: What’s your master plan moving forward?
MD: The club came to this location in 1922. We previously didn’t own a large amount of this land. It was a rugby club, and the land was bought in mid 60s, knowing that it would not have access to the land until the late 70s, but with the ambition that it would become Court 1 and practice facilities. The club also bought a golf course in the 80’s, but the lease does not go through until 2041, so we know we’ll have it then, but we are trying to get it ahead of that date. The whole rationale of that is that we don’t want to be land locked. This helps us keep with our idea of tennis in an English garden. On August 1 they are going to start removing the roof from Court 1, which will be completed by 2018, much like Centre Court in 2007. Then part of the roof will be put back on, although we will also be building 17 new suites with balconies around it, and in 2019 the retractable roof will be put on Court 1. So when it’s raining we will be able to seat around 29,000 people across the two courts. As soon as that is finished in 2019, the indoor courts will be demolished and replaced by brand new indoor courts with a tunnel between them and the club which has already been built and will be opened up soon. We always have a long term plan. Whilst a large amount of the surface goes to the Lawn Tennis Association for the growth of tennis, we also take quite a large proportion off to reinvest into the business. There has always been a long term plan. They usually last ten years and then once they are completed a new long term plan is mapped out. We all know where we are going and a lot of time is spent making sure that everyone in the team understands where they fit into that long term plan and what our ambition is.

E: Considering the global economic problems, how have you coped with finding the right sponsors that are willing to follow your vision?
MD: Obviously large proportions of our revenue come from our broadcast partners. The broadcasters understand that if we push into the US market they are going to get a return and then are capable of paying us more while maintaining their margin. We have seen our revenues grow strongly each year. We’ve just had a new debentures process for Court 1 where we increased the debentures by 86 percent and we were oversubscribed. When we did it a year ago on Centre Court by 104 percent, we were oversubscribed. We’re not complacent or arrogant, but the more we create strength in our brand the greater value it has.

E: How have new technologies affected your brand?
MD: We want most of our global media partners – the BBC in the UK, ESPN in the US, Fox Asia in Southeast Asia – to take as much content as they can. Most of them have eight or nine channels, so they aren’t just showing the Centre Court games. Alongside that we work very closely with our broadcast partners to celebrate our digital assets. We don’t want to compete with them on long form content. We have our own channel which is “Live at Wimbledon” and we have some live action, but it is short form. We’ve made an agreement with our partners that we can show one game per set per hour of any game happening. It’s usually something like Roger closing the first set, and if you’re in the UK it will say that you can follow this game live and exclusive on BBC One or if you’re in the US you can follow on ESPN 1. If people want to watch live action then we can tell them where to go.

E: Have you been approached by the likes of Google or YouTube or Netflix?
MD: All the time. We have relationships with some. On YouTube we do have Live at Wimbledon going out.
JR: In terms of it becoming a main point of broadcast, for us it’s more of an extension of our media partners. We have an excellent relationship with them, but in five or ten years we don’t know. It’s interesting times.

E: So you haven’t felt the switch between new media and traditional broadcasting?
MD: I think that we see online media as more of a means of marketing and communications. We have done some fantastic stuff with Facebook and we’ve done some stuff on Snapchat. But it’s more about us marketing, rather than allowing them to sell advertising around us. We don’t want that. Because we are a strong brand I think they respect that. We’ve lived through different media models. I’ve worked for a network television station for over 20 years, and we’ve gone from terrestrial network to subscription and now we are in a completely different media landscape. It will continue to change and we want to be on the leading edge. We will see where we can take our brand without undermining our brand.
JR: We very much believe in a proof of concept strategy. We want to see something working and then we’ll make the leap.

E: Would you say that you are trying to develop a strategy around lifestyle with your brand?
MD: We have quite a big strategy coming next year where we want to celebrate the food and wine of Wimbledon. We have a renowned chef who oversees all the menus of Wimbledon, and in fact his son is now taking over. We have fine wines from around the world. One great thing is that a lot of the tennis fans that come to Wimbledon come from some of the world’s best wine producing countries. We’ve been talking about having our own garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, which is huge in the UK and covered by the BBC. Should we grow our own pears or create our own honey? And with fashion, from 2017 we’ll have our own designers creating our own line of clothes and products, so that’s something that we think will grow. But we want to ensure it’s done in a stylish and proper way.
JR: When you’re looking at the audience on site and the audience watching at home, it’s a great blend. There are lots of people who love tennis and are very passionate about it, but we’re aware that there are lots of people who just come for a day out just to enjoy the occasion as much as the tennis. We like to see Wimbledon as a cultural event as much as a sporting event.
MD: The Royal Box is a ‘money can’t buy’ ticket. The only way that you can get in there is to be invited by the chairman. You’ll have fantastic global sports stars, royalty, politicians or actors, so it’s a wonderful part of our brand. There is a huge clamor for people wanting to be in there. Much like us turning down brands, we also turn people away from the Royal Box.

E: Can Wimbledon develop outside of the UK?
MD: We’ve been approached by the Middle East and China. Our worry would be that we wouldn’t be running it. One of the things that we do is ‘The Road to Wimbledon’, which has been running in the UK for 14 years now and three years ago we took that to India. It’s for children under 14 who compete and come to Wimbledon to play in a tournament in August. It’s like a mini Wimbledon. We took that to China this year and Rolex came as our partner. How can we take tennis, and especially playing on grass, to different parts of the world? I think with something physical, you have to be very careful. Rolex doesn’t allow anybody to create the workings of their watches outside the company. You see lots of brands that go international and you have to wonder whether it is still the same brand. There is a mystique about Wimbledon which we are guardians of. It’s tempting to pull the curtain back, but you don’t want to reveal everything.

August 12, 2016 0 comments

Jewelery and watches

The silent evolution

by Yasser Akkaoui August 12, 2016

written by Yasser Akkaoui

If you want to know the time, you can easily go out and pick up a cheap plastic watch for your wrist. With the advent of smartphones that we all carry around, you could also check there. Both perform the function of telling the time perfectly. But a watch can be so much more than just an instrument for making sure that you don’t miss your 3 pm spin class with Alphonso. Whatever watch you choose to buy it is going to send a message to whoever sees you wearing it. And that’s actually what always made me look the other way when I saw one.

In the 1980s, I would never have been spotted wearing a flashy watch. At the time, the company was making its watches for the highest social class. Gold, silver or platinum — bedazzled with jewels. They were status symbols, especially here in the Middle East. People wore Rolexes so others could see them wearing Rolexes. Unlike other “luxury” watch brands, everyone knew Rolex and understood immediately that the person wearing it had parted with a considerable pile of cash for the privilege of doing so. Or they just came back from a meeting – or a shopping trip – with a Gulf prince.
As time passed and perception changed, so too did the Rolex branding strategy. By the 1990s, Rolex responded to the changing times by beginning to expand production of its stainless steel watches, focusing less on the gaudy gold ones synonymous with the opulent luxury of the Gulf countries. Rolex also began marketing itself as the watch of adventurers and sporting events. Their watches are sophisticated, high quality and can survive even the most hostile conditions. Rolex is now the official timekeeper for top sporting events in tennis, golf and Formula 1 racing. When filmmaker James Cameron voyaged into the Mariana Trench in 2012, the robotic arm on his submarine wore a Rolex Oyster Perpetual Sea-Dweller Deep Sea Challenge watch. These notions of exploration and extraordinary achievement are not a new concept for the brand. Tenzing Norgay, who accompanied Sir Edmund Hillary to the top of Mount Everest, wore a Rolex. Such feats are a world away from the drug fueled, institutional greed of Wall Street in the 1980s.

The brand has also managed to stay independent through its 100-year-plus history, rebuffing the advances of major conglomerates like LVMH that had already swallowed up other luxury brands like Tag Heur, Zenith and Dior Watches. What made this possible is Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf’s well-executed succession planning. When Wilsdorf’s wife died in 1944, he established the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, and shortly before his death in 1960 he transferred all of his shares to the foundation, ensuring that the company’s income would go to charitable causes.
After learning this, and seeing all those dazzling steel watches on hands clapping ever so elegantly in the stands at Wimbledon, I do believe I’ve changed my mind about a brand with an unchanging face that has born witness to changing times for over 100 years.

August 12, 2016 0 comments

Hospitality & Tourism

When nostalgia meets luxury

by Nabila Rahhal August 11, 2016

written by Nabila Rahhal

Ask almost any Beirut resident about Summerland Hotel & Resort and they will get a misty eyed look before recounting a childhood memory involving the waterfall “cascades”, clubbing at the hotel’s legendary nightclub or celebrating a wedding on the private sandy beach. The list of memories of this historic resort goes on and on.

Opened in 1978 (in an area that now neighbors Ouzai) by Raja Saab, a prominent businessman, and his family, Summerland quickly became a place where people could stem the tide of worry brought on by the grim reality of the country’s long and bloody Civil War.

Summerland closed in the early 1990s, supposedly for necessary maintenance and upkeep. Today it is finally being reopened – with a totally renovated, modern and luxurious look – under the operation of Kempinski, Europe’s oldest luxury hotel group, which was established in 1897.

The project’s resort section has been in operation since early July and the hotel’s grand opening is set for September 2016.

Summerland Hotel & Resort Kempinski marks the first opening of an international luxury hotel chain in the country since the Four Seasons opened seven years ago, and is especially noteworthy given the country’s tough economic situation and the struggles Lebanon’s hospitality sector is currently facing.

Summerland by numbers

Société Générale d’Entreprises Touristiques (SGET), a Saudi-Lebanese corporation, owns Summerland Hotel & Summerland Village, a three-building residential development (73 apartments in total) on the same land as the hotel and resort project itself.

SGET pays Kempinski an annual fee to operate the hotel and has invested a total of $500 million into the construction and development of the 75,000sqm project, which includes the 153-room hotel property with its private pool, a 1,500sqm spa, seven restaurants, a private marina and finally the resort section.

The investment also includes the residential Summerland Village and the 583 cabins through which you are granted access to the resort. Cabins are currently owned by their original owners who can choose to resale through SGET if they wish to do so. Sales of the apartments and the cabins (if the original owners choose to sell) are the domain of SGET; the 100 to 400sqm apartments are being sold at $18,000 to $22,000 per square meter.

[pullquote]“Kempinski has been entrusted to manage the Summerland Hotel, using the brand’s expertise, reputation and consistency in quality service delivery.”[/pullquote]

Dagmar Symes, the General Manager of Summerland Hotel & Resort Kempinski, describes the relationship between Kempinski and SGET as a positive one. “Kempinski has been entrusted to manage the Summerland Hotel, using the brand’s expertise, reputation and consistency in quality service delivery. There is very close collaboration between us and the ownership company to assure the success of the entire project. Every decision we make must be taken with the best interest of the ownership company and the profitability of the hotel in mind,” says Symes.

The old and the new

Visitors to Summerland Hotel & Resort will recognize some elements of the original resort from their childhood, such as the waterfall at the edge of the main pool or the private sandy beach, although those two features are smaller than the original ones. Otherwise, the resort has been completely modernized with Kempinski’s touch of luxury and is almost unrecognizable from the original model.

As soon as the resort was reopened, many cabin owners flocked to Summerland to rekindle happy memories and make new ones with their families. While some customers nostalgically told Executive they prefer the look of the old Summerland, most felt that the resort’s glamourous vibe was still there, albeit with a new, more modern look.

kemp1

Symes says she sees Summerland’s history and nostalgic value as an asset to the project, explaining that capitalizing on the tradition and heritage of a location while giving it a European luxury flair is a trademark of Kempinski projects. “Kempinski always manages properties which are landmark destinations and the Summerland hotel in Lebanon was exactly that. The project is a perfect marriage between European-style luxury and Lebanese history. Luxury is in the details, and we have made sure to reflect this in everything there is throughout the hotel, be it service or product,” Symes explains.

Those culturally significant luxury details are indeed seen across the hotel, in elements such as the figurines which hang from the ceilings and inside the lobby’s color-changing crystal chandelier (exclusively designed for the hotel), which represents the Lebanese diaspora; the Oriental star motif on the carpets and walls; and the 100-piece art collection by Lebanese and Arab artists displayed throughout the hotel.

Hiring local staff

An emphasis on supporting and highlighting Lebanese assets is also seen in terms of hiring practices, where Symes wanted to have as many Lebanese on her team as possible, in all positions.

Indeed, only three non-Lebanese staff – Symes herself, the French executive chef and an engineer from the Kempinski head office – are among the 170 employees at Kempinski Summerland, with that number expected to reach 235 once the hotel is fully operational in September.

[pullquote]“Luxury is in the details, and we have made sure to reflect this in everything there is throughout the hotel, be it service or product.”[/pullquote]

Symes explains that the recruitment process was not easy, as is the case across the world, in that it is difficult to find the person with just the right attitude for a career in the hospitality sector. She claims she interviewed over 1,000 candidates to find “the needles in the haystack”.

Symes was, however, impressed with the level of education among those she interviewed and their ability to speak more than one language fluently. She also says that many employees had previously left Lebanon to work abroad and are returning to work with Kempinski. “Most hotel professionals have left the country in favor of the GCC, but now we are giving them the opportunity to return home and many are coming back and working with us because they want to be home with their families,” explains Symes.

What’s in a location

Summerland Kempinski is adjacent to the working-class Beirut suburb of Ouzai, which some see as a mismatch with the opulent property. Symes, however, focuses on the Jnah area – also near the property – pointing to the embassies and businesses in the area as elements of an affluent neighbourhood, as well as the fact that ABC will be opening a new mall in Verdun, just a three minute drive from Summerland. Symes also mentions the hotel’s proximity to the airport as another advantage to the location.

kemp2

Navigating the bumpy road

Summerland marks Kempinski’s first venture into Lebanon – a country it sees as a “hub in its mixture of Middle Eastern and European culture” – and is part of its strategy of expansion in the Middle East, although Symes admits that this entry was decided before Lebanon started facing a tourism crisis.

Indeed, Symes considers the lack of tourists as a main challenge they will face, as do most hotels in the country.

Again, just like many in the hospitality sector in Lebanon, Kempinski plans to compensate for this challenge by targeting Lebanese expats and local clientele through the hosting of events such as business conferences or weddings, and by marketing the resort as a pampered escape away from the hassles of city life.

[pullquote]Summerland marks Kempinski’s first venture into Lebanon – a country it sees as a “hub in its mixture of Middle Eastern and European culture”.[/pullquote]

Although the competition in this target market is high – with other five star luxury hotels competing for the same limited number of clientele who can afford such luxurious surroundings – Symes believes Summerland has several advantages over others.

Catering to the locals

Aside from the nostalgic factor, Summerland Kempinski also has the advantage of the novelty factor in attracting local clientele.

Summerland Kempinski hopes to offer the locals who can afford a five star experience an alternative to traveling for their vacations and Symes says they are developing a campaign called the Summerland Splash to specifically target the Lebanese market.

Symes also aims for Summerland to be a wedding venue destination offering a 300 person capacity ballroom (which opens up to an outdoor area which seats another 100 people) or the resort’s pool area and private beach for outdoor weddings. The hotel has seven weddings scheduled for this year although their marketing campaign hadn’t been officially launched at the time of publication.

Targeting locals will also be done through the local corporate accounts which Symes believes is the bread and butter of the hotel industry. The hotel has four meeting rooms, suites (which can be turned into meeting rooms) and the ballroom, which can host up to 600 people.

[pullquote]Summerland Kempinski hopes to offer the locals who can afford a five star experience an alternative to traveling for their vacations[/pullquote]

Foreign Affair

Although Symes admits that the focus will be on the local community for now, the GCC countries and Europe will also be targeted, especially when it comes to business travel. “The countries who make up our target international clientele are predominantly those in the GCC but we also aim to target a European clientele. European business people look for a place where they can do business and simultaneously enjoy resort facilities like ours,” explains Symes, adding that options such as “the spouse program”, where spouses of those attending conferences can benefit from a full day at the spa while their spouses use the facilities for team building activities, are additional potential assets for the international business community.

Only time will tell if the Kempinski Summerland Hotel & Resort will be able to live up to or exceed its original namesake, or whether it will be able to compete with other similar properties in the country that seek to attract the same target clientele. In the meantime, people can simply enjoy being in Summerland once again.

August 11, 2016 0 comments

Economics & Policy Oil and gas

Anti-corruption law needed for oil and gas

by Jeremy Arbid August 9, 2016

written by Jeremy Arbid

Almost a year has passed since Executive first reported on a new draft law aiming to stamp out corruption at various points along the life cycle of an oil and gas project. It is an understandable delay given that parliament has only ratified emergency laws and, after an over three year wait, cabinet has yet to pass two decrees needed to move Lebanon’s first offshore licensing round forward.

An early July meeting between the country’s Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri and leader of the Free Patriotic Movement Gebran Bassil, whose party has dominated the early stages of developing the oil and gas file, raised concerns over a possible ‘back-room deal’ [see cover story] over the sector’s future and, possibly, the fate of potential contracts and hoped-for revenues. If the need for strong anti-corruption rules for this sector was not apparent before, it is now.

That there is suspicion over the so-called deal between Berri and Bassil hardly comes as a surprise. This is an industry that has proven mostly opaque in much of the world and Lebanon is a country that, according to a ranking by global watchdog Transparency International, is deemed mostly corrupt. The anti-corruption law, proposed by MP Joseph Maalouf in 2015, promises an injection of transparency on the awarding of bids and subcontracting, as well as revenues flowing to the government’s coffers.

In an interview discussing updates to the draft law, Maalouf tells Executive he will have a formal draft prepared by the end of July to present to the Parliamentary Committee on Public Works, Energy and Water for review and, he hopes, approval. Upon committee approval the proposed legislation would be sent to other committees and joint committees for discussion. Speaker Berri, Maalouf told Executive last year and again now, is very supportive of the anti-corruption law. He hopes that high priority status might be enough to champion the bill as emergency legislation.

E In the past, the indication was that Speaker Berri wanted the offshore blocks to be smaller and that he wanted to offer all of them at once for bidding. Prior to this interview, we were told that the Speaker has changed his mind and agreed to the blocks as the size that they currently are and agreed to what they call gradual licensing. What’s the distinction?

There’s a difference between gradual licensing and offering the blocks. You can offer all ten blocks and then you license them gradually based on what prequalified companies come back with and based on the terms around each block, and on the various 3D scans that were done. So you would determine based on which company is interested in which block to develop certain prioritization criteria and you would license the blocks accordingly.

E On the excitement where everyone thought the decrees would be passed by the end of July – our impression has been that it may not be a deal per se but merely to present a positive outlook. Would it be unfair, from an outsider’s perspective, to suspect that there was some sort of under the table handshake?

You’re talking about splitting the pie. Regardless, there are some issues that need to be tightly monitored, there have been some rumors that were circulating around some companies that were squeezed in after the pre-qualification round. Our role as parliament is to monitor that and track it properly to make sure that all the laws that are being enacted are respected.

[pullquote]Hopefully the law we’re proposing will be as foolproof as possible to minimize and eliminate any possibility of corruption through total transparency in the whole system[/pullquote]

E Last year we discussed an anti-corruption draft bill for the sector. Has any progress been made to formalize this legislation?

It is a proposal of a law that I’m working on with the Lebanese Petroleum Administration whose members have been extremely collaborative. I’m working with a subcommittee now on refining the proposal and what we did was a full-fledged process analysis from the time the blocks will be offered all the way through exploration, production and dismantlement – the full life cycle. We took each step in each of the phases and analyzed how they could be jeopardized and how corruption could seep in. We’re creating transparency measures at each step of the process to make sure that we can control it. Anybody with dubious intentions trying to take advantage of the system is at an advantage because they will always look for loopholes somewhere, somehow. Hopefully the law we’re proposing will be as foolproof as possible to minimize and eliminate any possibility of corruption through total transparency in the whole system.

E We’ve seen Member of Parliament Samy Gemayal advocating for transparency measures such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Is that enough and does your draft law stipulate reporting requirements?

With all due respect the EITI is not enough for us. Many of the components that EITI suggests, from our perspective, should be mandatory. Divulging information and ensuring transparency will be mandatory in the law that we’re proposing – what we’re doing goes beyond any existing law globally. It’s in a similar direction, but we’re going beyond on a process monitoring level. The intent was there [last time Executive spoke with Maalouf about the proposed law in September 2015] and the actualization of it has become much clearer.

E How deep does the proposed law go – to service providers and subcontractors?

Subcontracting is the game. That’s where the EITI proposes some things that are useful, but they’re not enough. In terms of going down to the second tier or third tier, that’s where we need to track contractors and subcontractors. [We need specific transparency measures] mandated by law. We’ve done the full fledged process analysis for the whole project life cycle – from granting exploration licenses all the way through dismantlement of facilities. Each step is now much clearer and the points are very well defined.

August 9, 2016 0 comments

Economics & Policy Oil and gas

Legislation in progress

by Jeremy Arbid August 5, 2016

written by Jeremy Arbid

Recent news that rival political parties agreed on a vision for Lebanon’s oil and gas sector was met with worried optimism – an over three year wait for pending decrees to move the first offshore licensing round forward may be nearing an end. Until early July it seemed that oil and gas would continue to languish at the lowest rungs of the government’s priority ladder.

The politically-induced freeze on oil and gas might not be ending anytime soon (see cover story). But if the sector is to move forward the government will need to resolve a number of legislative details. Executive wondered what stage the Lebanese Petroleum Administration (LPA), the sector’s regulator, has reached in preparing necessary decrees and laws, and of its take on the added value of newly available seismic data. It had, after all, been nearly a year since the last time Executive reached out to the LPA for a formal interview. “Are we moving forward?” Executive asks. With technical preparations, yes, says Walid Nasr, head of strategic planning.

E Up to this point interpretations of the seismic data suggested high prospectivity for offshore Lebanon, but recently new data has emerged. What do interpretations suggest and why is this new data making headlines?

In 2002 TGS [a geoscience data acquisition company] came to Lebanon and did a survey offshore with 2D seismic lines covering most of the Exclusive Economic Zone. Recently the LPA managed to retrieve this data from the company – at that time [TGS] did not have an official contract with the Ministry of Energy. In 2011 Minister Bassil brought a lawsuit against the company to get the data and settle the issue between the company and the Lebanese government. So we retrieved the data from TGS and did our own interpretation. The added value of the TGS data is that it had lines in areas where we did not have any data before, specifically on the border areas. When we interpreted this data we came to the conclusion that we may have common reservoirs with neighboring countries.

E That data suggests that there could be, but does not establish, reservoirs that stretch into neighboring countries’ waters?

Final confirmation is by drilling, of course. But what it suggests is that we may have reservoirs across borders that have good prospectivity.

E Is there any update on a pending petroleum tax law?

The petroleum tax law has been prepared by the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the LPA. Now it’s in the Ministry of Finance and the minister should be able to submit it to the council of ministers and then it should go to parliament for approval.

[pullquote]If the sector is to move forward, the government will need to resolve a number of legislative details[/pullquote]

E The argument we often hear when you don’t have fiscal and legal legislation set before a licensing round is that companies may be hesitant to bid because the rules of the game are not clear. Are you pushing for the law to be passed before the licensing round moves forward?

That is what we are working on. This tax law is prepared in line with best practices to have a good fiscal system in Lebanon. We are working with the Ministry of Finance and they are eager to have this law passed before the bidding process ends. What is important is to have this law passed by parliament before the actual date of the submission of the bid so companies can design their offer accordingly. However, the two decrees pending can be issued in parallel or before this [petroleum tax legislation].

Worst case scenario – which we wouldn’t like – the current tax law applies [a 15 percent corporate tax rate]. So companies would design their bids based on the current tax law. Even if they bid [based on the current tax law], we have stability clauses within the Exploration and Production Agreement that could address [future changes to the tax law]. Our preference, and we’re working with the Ministry of Finance on this, is to have [the new tax law] issued so that we have a complete fiscal system with a petroleum tax law in place.

E There’s also the onshore oil and gas exploration law that is still pending. Is that bill under preparation or ready for referral?

The Ministry of Energy and Water is preparing that; the minister has formed a committee comprised of the LPA and the ministry. We are close to a final draft that will be submitted to the minister and he will, in turn, submit it to the cabinet after which it will go to the parliament. It calls for the LPA to manage both onshore and offshore. It’s technically easier to drill onshore, less costly, less risky and faster in terms of development. The main issue onshore is environmental, it’s more critical and we have some concerns, protecting groundwater for example. The draft law aims to address these concerns.

[pullquote]Our preference, and we’re working with the Ministry of Finance on this, is to have [the new tax law] issued so that we have a complete fiscal system with a petroleum tax law in place[/pullquote]

E We understand the LPA is drafting implementation decrees and is preparing the groundwork for a law to organize a sovereign wealth fund. Are there any updates?

There are some application decrees that we are preparing that would complement the Petroleum Activities Regulations. One of them is the Petroleum Register, very important, where you have all the companies and the details of the awards, and the production later on, registered in the Register with all the licensees, including beneficial ownership. This is being prepared now and will be ready before the bidding process.

For the sovereign wealth fund we have a lot of time to establish it because actual revenues will not be flowing in the short term. It’s very important to set it up, so now the LPA is doing some assessments but we are not drafting the law ourselves because this is a national topic that needs to be discussed. The law should be based on [commercially extractable] resources and our vision of how these will be managed – we’ll provide the technical support and advice needed to design this law.

August 5, 2016 0 comments

Editorial Opinion

A disappointing win

by Yasser Akkaoui August 2, 2016

written by Yasser Akkaoui

Three years ago, we asked then Minister of Energy Gebran Bassil about how millions of dollars made from the sale of oil and gas data were being managed as part of our coverage of the governance of the nascent industry. He told us it wasn’t important. When we ran an article suggesting such secrecy is a bad thing, he sued us for defamation. This month, we won. What kills me, however, is that our in-depth coverage that exposes with irrefutable truth suspicions of cronyism got overlooked by the general public, civil society and those responsible for investigating such doubts. I welcome the judgment, but the most important questions remain unanswered: where’s the money and what checks and balances are in place to safeguard our interests? The purpose of sticking out our necks quite prominently is not to get shares and likes or even warm handshakes. We demand an investigation.

There is an accountability problem in this country, and it’s about time someone did something about it. Around this time last year, we watched the political class manipulate a popular movement. “The mafias” who we were marching to depose won – let’s not kid ourselves. They used and manipulated street protests as an excuse to cancel waste management deals with the private sector that would have solved the trash crisis across the whole country. We would have had infrastructure and modern solutions. Instead we’re going to throw much of our trash in the sea. The rest will continue to be burned and dumped around the rest of the country. And no one cares.

It’s demoralizing. Our economy is all but dead. We’re sinking. Instead of throwing us a lifeline, our politicians are pushing us under with their dirty deals and gross mismanagement. At Executive, we’re doing our part. Our investigative journalists work tirelessly month after month to explain the most complex of issues in an easy to understand way, pointing out what is being done right and how to improve what is not. We’re doing the hard work and it’s time for civil society to pull its weight as well. Without strong and continuous action, we will never be able to save this country.

August 2, 2016 3 comments

Leaders Oil & Gas Opinion

Another red flag

by Executive Editors August 1, 2016

written by Executive Editors

First and foremost, the deal shouldn’t have been discussed in private by two political parties. By law, it is cabinet’s job to set the country’s oil and gas policy. While the “oil deal” meeting is far more egregious, it is sadly the rule for how this sector has been officially discussed in the past two years. Prime Minister Tammam Salam created a ministerial committee to debate oil and gas back in early 2014. The committee met only a few times. Instead of using the official venue on offer, each individual minister had the Lebanese Petroleum Administration (LPA) come for a one-on-one visit to explain the sector and the LPA’s vision for an oil and gas strategy. Oil and gas is a complicated and technical topic. Imagine if the LPA gave the ministerial committee 15 or 20 workshops on the subject, first bringing everyone up to speed on the basics of how the industry works and then outlining different options for a Lebanese oil and gas strategy while weighing the pros and cons of various choices. We would have more informed ministers. The “classroom” environment would help those from rival camps see how the other side thinks, which could help avoid future years-long delays at important junctures as cabinet decides on every step forward in this sector. If these workshops were televised (and made permanently available on YouTube), interested citizens and civil society groups would today be more equipped to oversee this sector as it is born and hopefully grows. Moving forward, this must be our model. There is no legitimate reason for talk on this subject to be secret. All oil and gas discussions must be public.

Equally offensive was the reaction to the deal. Where was civil society? The silence is shameful. Civil society must protest questionable proceedings like these. The method of protest is irrelevant. At least do something – a statement, anything. Except tire burning. Please.

Weeding corruption out of the system is a long-term goal that will take time and effort. It has been growing for decades, and its roots have a strangle hold on nearly every state institution. The nascent oil and gas sector, however, is an opportunity. Three years ago Executive asked how millions of dollars in survey data revenue are being managed. We were answered with a defamation lawsuit (which we won this month, for the record). Two years ago, we noted a flaw in the pre-qualification process that allowed Mohamad Chouqair, head of the Beirut chamber of commerce, and Mahmoud Sidani, chairman of Unigaz, to participate in the first licensing round. Their company is registered in Hong Kong and they pay a yearly fee to obscure their ownership of it (Panama Papers, anyone?). Perhaps not surprisingly, the disclosure changed nothing. It is time we all wake up. This sector is being built from scratch and we have the chance to get something right. We must not squander it.

August 1, 2016 1 comment

Economics & Policy Oil & Gas

Decoding the oil deal

by Matt Nash August 1, 2016

written by Matt Nash

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is having trouble making up his mind. Or so it seems. On July 1, Berri and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil struck an unexpected deal. The agreement was touted as a bulldozer clearing the final barrier that, for over three years, has blocked the conclusion of Lebanon’s first offshore oil and gas licensing round. The parties, however, have chosen a very odd strategy for building national consensus around their deal. By all accounts, they haven’t shared the details widely, and the terms of the deal coming from the speaker’s side vary depending on what you read. At the time of writing, this looks more like a media stunt than a news development.

Coming to terms

The search for oil and gas under Lebanese territory began before the territory was technically Lebanese. Some five years prior to Lebanon’s 1943 declaration of independence, the Iraq Petroleum Company drilled an onshore well. The company did not make any discoveries, but the search continued (both via drilling and surveying) until the early 1970s. In 1993, the government again began looking for hydrocarbons, commissioning a two-dimensional (2-D) seismic survey off the coast of Tripoli, in the north. Since then, oil stayed on politicians’ brains, but movement has typically been slow, with one exception: Najib Miqati’s 2011-2013 cabinet. With a newly minted offshore hydrocarbon law on the books, then-Energy Minister Bassil clearly made the creation of a Lebanese oil and gas sector a top priority, and the cabinet largely backed him.

[pullquote]Since 2013, it has been quite clear that one of the biggest barriers to getting the decrees passed lies in a disagreement involving Berri[/pullquote]

In December 2012, after securing the cabinet’s approval, Bassil announced the appointment of six board members for the Lebanese Petroleum Administration (LPA), a regulator for the sector, which the 2010 offshore law called for. [By way of contrast, an electricity sector regulator called for in a 2002 law remains ink on paper to this day.] In February 2013 – only 80 days after its board was appointed – the LPA opened a pre-qualification round to select which international oil and gas companies would be allowed to bid in the first licensing round. The pre-qualification process went as planned, and in April 2013, 46 companies were given the green light to participate in the round, scheduled to open the following month. There was only one problem. Miqati had resigned at the end of March before much-needed work on oil and gas was finished. Most pressing were two decrees needed for the licensing round (one delineates Lebanon’s offshore blocks and the other includes a model contract to be signed between the state and companies keen to drill as well as details on how the bidding will happen and how offers will be evaluated). Shortly after Prime Minister Tammam Salam formed a government in February 2014, he tasked a ministerial committee with studying the decrees. They have yet to be approved.

Since 2013, it has been quite clear that one of the biggest barriers to getting the decrees passed lies in a disagreement involving Berri. The speaker wanted to open all ten blocks for bidding. The LPA, meanwhile, recommended opening only five, a position Bassil supported. In either scenario, fewer contracts would be signed than blocks put on offer. Announcing the Berri-Bassil deal, neither Bassil nor Berri’s confidant, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, mentioned anything about which blocks to open for bids. Speaking to Executive two weeks after the deal was done, Cesar Abi Khalil, a former Bassil advisor (currently counseling Energy Minister Arthur Nazarian), at first reads an amended version of the statement issued after the Berri-Bassil meeting.

“There has been an agreement on [an offshore oil and gas] licensing strategy,” Abi Khalil says. “The licensing strategy should ensure Lebanon’s rights to resources in our subsea, first [vis-à-vis] Israel, second Cyprus and Syria. It should ensure that the Lebanese government will maximize its profit from petroleum activities, and it will ensure the right environment for the licensing round to succeed.” Neither foreign nor finance ministers mentioned “licensing strategy” in their July 1 announcement. Even with that added detail, however, the deal still sounds vague. (Which party would agree to ceding Lebanon’s rights, minimizing the state’s take from potential resources and having an unsuccessful licensing round?) Indeed, Executive’s first question to Abi Khalil was: “So what does that all mean?”

“I think this is clear. This is the extent of the statement,” Abi Khalil replies, before elaborating diplomatically that Berri agreed to abandon an idea he had been promoting for about three years. The actual deal, Abi Khalil says, calls for opening fewer than ten blocks to bidding in the first licensing round.

Reading the tea leaves

Executive was unable to reach Speaker Berri or anyone who could answer questions on his behalf. On July 9, The Daily Star reported Berri had convinced Bassil to accept opening all ten blocks, the opposite of what Abi Khalil says the deal entails. On July 22, economist Marwan Iskandar wrote in An Nahar that the Speaker told him personally that the deal meant going with the LPA’s strategy of opening fewer than ten blocks, seemingly confirming what Abi Khalil says. Yet that same day, Al Arabiya English ran a piece again claiming the Speaker’s vision of offering all ten blocks had won the day.

Future Movement MP Mohammad Kabbani, who heads the parliamentary committee which deals with oil and gas, explains that his party has not been explicitly briefed on the deal since it was struck, but says his party is on board. “We have agreed to submitting ten blocks for licensing and signing only a few contracts. If this is the real agreement,” he says. According to Abi Khalil, that is not the deal, which seems to throw into question whether or not Future will accept it. Abi Khalil has not responded to follow up questions on why confusion and misinformation seems to be how the parties are communicating their deal.

Why now?

Putting aside the details of the deal for a second, Kabbani and Lebanese Forces MP Joseph Maalouf offered some insight as to why the deal came when it did. For three years now, Berri has been claiming that Israel is stealing Lebanon’s gas. He has never offered proof and the concept always seemed suspect on technical grounds. Lebanon’s neighbor has discovered gas in its offshore acreage. None of those discoveries stretch into Lebanese waters. Therefore, if Israel were truly stealing, the private company doing the actual drilling would have to employ expensive technology to drill past the Israeli fields on a blind, subsea search for Lebanese fields to the north. Not only is this costly and risky (i.e., no guarantee a Lebanese field would be found), if the private company were caught doing so, its reputation would be in the toilet at the very least. The only other way for Israel to steal Lebanon’s gas would be if the two countries shared a reserve and Israel began exploiting it first without agreeing how to split profits with Lebanon. Shared reserves are not uncommon (Iran and Qatar share the world’s largest gas field). None have yet been discovered between Israel and Lebanon. However, new data suggest the two countries may have a shared reservoir. This new data, coupled with fears that an Israel-Turkey reconciliation announced in late June means Israeli gas may soon reach a hungry European market via a pipeline to Turkey, prompted the oil deal, Maalouf and Kabbani say.

Walid Nasr, head of strategic planning at the LPA, refuses to comment on the political deal, but sheds light on the new data. Echoing Kabbani and Maalouf, he explains that in 2002, an American company called TGS conducted seismic surveys of Lebanon’s offshore. The company refused to give the Lebanese government the data back then, Nasr says, because the two did not have a written contract, only an oral agreement between the company and the then-minister of energy. Bassil sued in 2011, and TGS handed the data over recently, Nasr explains. TGS refuses to comment in an email exchange with Executive, but a paper on the company’s website confirms it shot over 2,000 kilometers of 2-D seismic in Lebanon’s offshore in 2002. Interestingly, the map published along with the paper seems to show that Lebanon’s seismic surveys stretch south into Israel’s offshore. Nasr says the interpreted data suggests Lebanon and Israel may have a shared hydrocarbon reservoir (2-D seismic cannot distinguish between oil and gas). Seismic surveys, however, are not perfect tools. They give indications of where oil and/or gas might be. Only drilling confirms what lies below, meaning what today looks like shared resources could prove to be nothing.

Unfinished business

Immediately after the deal, press reports claiming the decrees would be passed imminently were rife. Yet a number of decisions still need to be made. While Abi Khalil insists Berri pivoted from wanting to open all ten blocks for bidding, he admits the exact number was not decided on. Indeed, he repeatedly says “we have no religion” in the matter when asked if the LPA’s strategy of offering five will be the final strategy. Ditto the number of contracts to be signed. Fewer than the number of blocks offered, but how many? “We have no religion in this matter,” Abi Khalil repeats. Finally, given that the pre-qualification round happened three years ago, might another be necessary if some pre-qualified companies have lost interest in bidding or if new companies are eager to invest? Khalil says a second pre-qualification round could be a good idea, but insists his side has “no religion in the matter.” Where and how these remaining points open to negotiation will be discussed is unclear. Prime Minister Tammam Salam has not called for a meeting of the oil and gas ministerial committee to discuss recent developments. Nor has he put the oil and gas decrees on the cabinet’s agenda. In fact, he’s done little more than offer veiled criticism of how the deal was announced. During the July 1 press conference, when a reporter asked Bassil for details, he said that was not important at this stage as the two sides would now begin briefing others to build consensus. If such a roadshow is happening, it is one of the best kept secrets in Lebanon.

August 1, 2016 0 comments