Sharp increase in industrial licenses

Growth in numbers attributed to
deadline to legitimize status

Industrial permits issued by the Ministry of Industry (MoI) increased by 40 percent to 578 licenses last year, compared to 415 licenses in 2013.

Ziad Bekdache, Vice President of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, said: “Most of these newly licensed factories are in existence and have finalized the necessary documents to become legitimate.” The MoI had given them a grace period to regularize their status. The number of licenses provided for the establishment of new factories is 98, representing around 17 percent of the total number of licenses issued.

Establishment licenses that are given when the owner wants to start developing the factory, represented the highest percentage (43 percent), while investment licenses that are given when they start operating, represented around 14 percent, and investment and establishment licenses represented 16 percent of the total number of permits issued.

The Mount Lebanon governorate received the highest share of licenses for new factories (60 percent), followed by the Bekaa (21 percent), and the North (eight percent).

Most licenses were for light industries. Of the licenses, 33 percent concerned fourth category factories, such as textile factories, and 44 percent concerned third category factories such as food industry factories. Categories one and two are for heavy or semi-heavy industries.

About 143 factory licenses went to the food industry, followed by 129 licenses for construction materials, 50 for electronics and 45 for chemicals. George Nasrawi, Former Chairman of the Syndicate of Lebanese Food Industries, said: “The food safety campaign launched by the Ministry of Public Health and the new requirements requested, pushed industrialists to improve their status by obtaining licenses.” The majority of licenses in the food industry were issued to existing factories.

Nesrawi said that the demand coming from Syrian refugees has encouraged investors to establish new food companies.
The most industrial zones that gained licenses were Zahle, Hoch El Oumara (23 permits) and Bouchrieh (19 permits).