Office to promote
economic ties with GCC

To ease business operations

The Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture of Beirut and Mount Lebanon (CCIA-BML) launched on Wednesday the Office for the Promotion for Lebanese-Gulf Economic Relations.

This office will be at the disposal of any Gulf investor who wants to invest in Lebanon, said CCIA-BML’s Chairman Mohamed Choucair, who will head the new office.

“We will assist investors in establishing their companies in Lebanon. If for instance, they want to obtain licenses, such as an industrial license, we will provide support and will make things easy for them,” Choucair said. The office was established by CCIA-BML and is located within its headquarters in Sanayeh, Beirut. GCC chambers will also open offices in their own countries to boost economic relations with Lebanon, Choucair said.

Adnan Kassar, Honorary Chairman of the General Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for Arab Countries said that the office represents a new leap forward to expand the economic and investment relations with the Gulf and to bring back the vitality and energy to these relationships.

Choucair said: “Our exports to GCC countries represent about 53 percent of our overall exports and about 85 percent of foreign investments in Lebanon are Gulf investments.”

The Gulf is the largest market for Lebanese products, said Kassar, who is also President of Fransabank. Most Lebanese expatriates work in the Gulf and their remittances represent a sizeable contribution to the national economy, he said. Gulf tourists and investors are a basic part of the Lebanese economy, Kassar said.

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri said that the political and security stability in Lebanon is of paramount importance to the improvement of the country’s economic performance. The Lebanese economy breathes from the lungs of the Arab countries and especially the Gulf states, Asiri said.

Fady Gemayel, President of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, said the association welcomes any opportunity that allows the industrial sector to tap all its potential in order to play its full role in the national economy, especially to provide job opportunities.