Ministry of Industry plans
to reduce trade deficit

Vision 2025 looking at
$5 billion increase in exports

The Ministry of Industry (MoI) has launched a vision for the year 2025 to encourage the creation of new subsectors and raise productivity.

Minister Hussein Hajj Hassan said that the strategy hopes to lift exports up to $5 billion and decrease imports from $18 billion to $16 billion, thus reducing the fiscal deficit from $15 billion to $11 billion.

The strategic goals behind the vision include: Providing a unified central building for the ministry and new centers for its departments, increasing the number of jobs, raising the sector’s capacity to provide between 50 to 70 percent of consumption needs. The vision aims to lower imports, enhance competitiveness, increase investments, and encourage new and green industries.

The ministry plans to expand the local market through organizing factories, encouraging the preference of local products in public purchases, supporting small and medium industries and working on expanding them nationwide. The ministry said it will form a committee for the construction and management of industrial zones.

The MoI will improve industrial exports through stimulating cooperation with Lebanese missions abroad, finding new markets, and encouraging industrial tourism through supporting the private sector to create promotional offices abroad, increasing the number of labs to reduce the time needed for tests, and encouraging incoming and outgoing delegations.

In order to improve competitiveness, the ministry will encourage industries with added value like nanotechnology, mechatronics, fashion design, transformative industry, alternative energy, jewelry, industrial equipment, cosmetics, essential oils, biochemistry, industrial chemistry, and petrochemical industries. It also calls for developing design components of products, such as labeling and packaging, as well as lowering production cost by lowering capital and using efficient energy sources.

The ministry will participate in research and support industries that want to be more technologically advanced. The strategy will work on improving people’s perception of the sector.