Lessons from Public-Private Partnerships in Lebanon
In 2019, the IGC in Lebanon partnered with the High Council of Privatization (HCP) at the Prime Minister’s Office to draw lessons from previous privatisation attempts.
Lebanon has traditionally relied on its banking system to attract capital inflows into the local economy. Ongoing political deadlock and regional turmoil have regressed position as a financial hub in the region as well as its real estate and touristic sectors. These sources of growth have largely waned since 2011 due to regional turmoil, leaving the country with little growth potential. Indeed, deficient telecom, transport, and energy networks constitute strong bottlenecks for private sector development. For example, the lack of governance in the telecom sector means mobile services to be among the most expensive in the region. Similarly, the transport network has been characterised by a steady deterioration over the last ten years, leading to heavy congestion in urban areas.
As a result, generating a new productive model to tackle Lebanon’s social and economic problems will be difficult without remedying the deficient infrastructure endowment and solidifying the governance and regulatory environments.
