SEPTEMBER 2012

Business in brutal times

Clan diplomacy
Kidnapping, hashish and new alliances

An illogical conspiracy
Former Minister of Information not your typical tough guy

Aleppo out of work
Shortages loom as industrial heartland is shuttered

Cairo’s new deal
Mohammed Morsi’s presidency a step forward for the Palestinian cause

Vroom a la Libanais
The first ‘Arab supercar’ en route

Lebanese in Kurdistan
The competition and opportunity of a frontier market

Parking against the machine
Streamlined new system eliminates wasta and lets you park all day

Weathering the rainy days
Insurers seek shelter from today’s tepid economy

Tied up in risk
The danger of business of ignoring insurance until it’s too late

Orange scheme crashes
Dropping cross-border traffic leaves empty roads for cross-border insurance

Q&A – Issam Hitti
Lebanese insurance brokers syndicate

For your information

The retirement pain
Why the safety net won’t catch you

Your social insecurity
Lebanon’s leaking National Social Security Fund

Q&A – Mohamad Karaki
National Social Security Fund

Executive Insight – A fund for the future
Parliament discusses vital overhaul for Lebanon’s public pensions

Q&A – Christos Papadopoulos
Standard Chartered’s head of MENA & Pakistan

A view from the Alps
Talking taxes, francs and emerging markets with Swiss private banking giant Pictet

MENA stock tips, September 2012
Regional investment aficionados put the chaos into context

Financial quotes of the month
Words from the world’s movers and shakers

For your information

Collusion over our heads
MEA, minister prefer ‘open skies’ be closed

Q&A – Ghazi Aridi
The minister explains his positions on MEA and protectionism

Facing proportional representation
3 Democracy experts review reform

Executive Insight – Who owns the sea?
A legal perspective on the disputed zone between Lebanon and Israel

For your information

Developing debauchery in downtown
Project pumps life into Beirut’s city center

Endeavoring to succeed
VC firm backs three Lebanese entrepreneurs

Behind the silver screen
The script for a movie business in the Middle East

Many plates at the table
The billion-dollar business of feeding others

Making them like they used to
Beirut’s Frosty Palace diner takes burgers back to the 1950s

The limits of speed and sanity
No car faster than Bugatti’s Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse

The right balance in media exposure
Measuring the medium and the message in election season

Company bulletin

Can the cabinet
How removing the ministers would give Lebanon a more representative government