June 17, 2011- Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh called for establishing the Mediterranean Development Bank, highlighting the need to keep such an institution away from political ramifications.

“The Mediterranean region needs capable institutions that can confront growing poverty invoked by the globally rising prices of oil and food items,” he said.

Salameh was speaking Wednesday (June 15) at a seminar addressing the prospects of establishing the Mediterranean Bank for Development.

Bader Young Entrepreneurs Program and IPEMED, the institute of economic forecasting for the greater Mediterranean, organized a seminar about ‘The Mediterranean Development Bank and its Role in a Changing Mediterranean World’, at the ESA (École Supérieure des Affaires) building in Beirut.

The Euro- Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, held early March, had urged the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean Development Bank, as a branch of the European Investment Bank (EIB). The UfM said the bank aims to carry out programs to combat poverty, unemployment and social exclusion.

Salameh said the rise in the prices of basic commodities, mainly oil, and the “currencies’ war” will have a negative impact on most Mediterranean countries. 

Head of the Industrialists Association, Bader and IPEMED board member, Nehmat Frem, said Lebanon has achieved exceptional growth rates throughout the past five years, but that the infrastructure fell short of accompanying the growth.

IPEMED founder and general delegate Jean-Louis Guigou said the European states have turned their attention to their local predicament while the Southern side of the Mediterranean is witnessing revolutions.