Government forms
economic taskforces

One central committee

and four sub-committees

The government has formed a central committee to prepare a recovery plan and to tackle the economic and financial crisis, according to a decision by Prime Minister Hassan Diab.

The central committee includes Diab, Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Zeina Adra, Minister of Finance Ghazi Wazni, Minister of Economy and Trade Raoul Nehmeh, Minister of Justice Marie-Claude Najm, Minister of Industry Imad Hoballah, Minister of Agriculture Abbas Mortada, Director General of the Lebanese Presidency Antoine Choucair, and Secretary General of the Council of Ministers Judge Mahmoud Makkieh.

The committee will be assisted by four taskforces composed of economists and financial experts as well representatives of ministries and of the Central Bank (BDL) and Kafalat. Kafalat is a semi-public financial company that guarantees loans to small and medium enterprises.

Members of the taskforce addressing monetary and banking issues include a BDL representative and a representative of the Banking Control Commission as well as two of Diab’s advisors former BDL Vice-governor Ahmad Jishi and Georges Chalhoub.

Another taskforce, which will focus on financial concerns, has four representatives of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) Alain Bifani who is MoF’s Director General, Talal Salman who is UNDP’s Project Director at MoF, Samir Nasr (Chairman of ECE Capital, a financial advisory firm), and Roger Melki (former associate at ECE, and who previously advised the ministries of Finance as well as Economy and Trade). This taskforce also includes two representatives of the Ministry of Economy: Marwan Mikhael (formerly head of research at BLOMINVEST Bank) and Leila Dagher, a professor at AUB, in addition to Diab’s advisor Farid Chedid, and international economic expert Garbis Iradian.

Macroeconomic issues will be addressed under the umbrella of a third taskforce that includes all the members of the first two.

Dagher, Melki, a representative of Kafalat, and a representative of the Ministry of Industry will also form a taskforce that will tackle investment and economic growth concerns.