LATEST ECONOMIC BRIEFINGS
THAILAND | 05.02.2010
Thailand is looking to overhaul the country's rail network, planning to combine state spending with private sector investments to revamp a system that in recent years has been overtaken by road transport as the economy's primary freight mover.
OMAN | 05.02.2010
Investors will be hoping the steady recovery posted by the Sultanate's equities last year will continue into 2010. Already, early signs of confidence are becoming apparent, with initial public offerings (IPOs) expected to resume shortly and a degree of bullishness prompted by resurgent oil prices.
SAUDI ARABIA | 05.02.2010
As the Gulf Cooperation Council's biggest economy closes the books on 2009, it may well be remembered as a year of caution and mixed fortunes. Economic growth was positive and inflation fell, but lower oil prices caused the state budget to drift into deficit territory. Nevertheless, with the government clearly committed to supporting the economy through stimulatory spending, higher growth is already expected in 2010.
ROMANIA | 04.02.2010
Having been one of the driving forces in the Romanian economy up until the end of 2008, the construction sector has had to take a back seat over the past 12 months, with workers being laid off, many new projects put on the backburner and ongoing developments halted as funding and demand dried up.
LEBANON | 01.02.2010
Lebanon continued to defy the expectations of many in 2009, being able to not only weather the worst of the global financial crisis but also post solid economic gains while undergoing another period of political tension.
COUNTRY COVERAGE
Rebuilding Infrastructure
Lebanon, Volume 135
25.08.2006
25.08.2006
With the United Nations-brokered cease fire still holding in Lebanon, the country is cautiously looking to the future, again contemplating the task of rebuilding a battered economy and shattered infrastructure.
However, the task will be both long and costly, with one official from the UN Development Program (UNDP), suggesting that the total losses suffered by Lebanon in the 34 day conflict would add up to $15bn or more. Repairs or replacing the country's damaged infrastructure will account for at least $3.5bn, with the work being a priority before the economy can even begin to get back on its feet.
International donors and aid agencies have begun to commit funds for the reconstruction of Lebanon, with the World Bank announcing it would reallocate $40m in previously approved loans for rebuilding work and provide assistance in identifying immediate reconstruction needs.
Others to commit to providing assistance have been the US, which pledged $230m in immediate aid and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who promised to rebuild two towns in southern Lebanon, the region hardest hit during the war. At the height of the fighting between Hizbullah and Israel, Saudi Arabia provided $500m to prop up the Lebanese Central Bank, with a further offer of a similar amount in aid.
Lebanon is also looking to a donors' conference scheduled for August 31 to be held in Sweden as a source of further assistance.
However, while looking to the international community for help, the Lebanese government wants to keep its hands firmly on the reins of the reconstruction efforts. On August 23, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said that all funding for reconstruction projects would be channelled through government agencies. Financial assistance would be put into a general fund to be distributed at the discretion of the government, with donor countries only determining the terms of consulting and building contracts and pay the rebuilding costs, he said.
"Lebanon is not a house without any doormen," Siniora said. "If someone wants to donate a pencil to Lebanon, the cabinet has to approve it."
The determination to control the reconstruction process was supported by Joseph Saba, the World Bank's country director for Lebanon, who said that the government had excellent capacities and competencies
"This is not a traditional case where the international community needs to come in and set up parallel structures," he said.
Setting up structures of a different sort will be one of the first tasks the Lebanese government has to address, with an estimated 35,000 homes and businesses being destroyed in the fighting and 25% of the country's road bridges and overpasses shattered. This will only be the beginning of the work.
According to Jean Fabre, a spokesman for the UNDP, the 15 years of economic and social gains made after the end of the 1975-90 civil war in Lebanon were destroyed in the month long conflict.
"The damage is such that the last 15 years of work on reconstruction and rehabilitation, following the previous problems that Lebanon experienced, are now annihilated," Fabre told a press conference in Geneva on August 23.
The recent conflict appears to have claimed yet another casualty, with Fadl Shalak, head of Lebanon's Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR), announcing he was resigning after publicly disagreeing with the prime minister over the reconstruction plans and the apparent removal of the CDR from the process.
Shalak incurred the ire of Siniora and other senior government officials following an interview with television network CNN on August 22 in which he said that there was a lack of leadership in the planning of the country's recovery and that the present political situation was not conducive to quick reconstruction.
Under Shalak, the CDR - set up by the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri - has been the lead organisation in Lebanon's recovery from the civil war, with many of its showcase projects in Beirut.
One factor seen as limiting the initial stages of the reconstruction effort is Israel's ongoing air and naval blockade of Lebanon, imposed at the beginning of the war and now justified by Tel Aviv as crucial to stopping Hizbullah from rearming.
With Lebanon reliant on imports for almost all its energy needs, as well as for the materials required for rebuilding to start, Lebanese officials are expected to make the lifting of the blockage one of the main issues to be discussed with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan during his August 28 visit to the country.
However, the task will be both long and costly, with one official from the UN Development Program (UNDP), suggesting that the total losses suffered by Lebanon in the 34 day conflict would add up to $15bn or more. Repairs or replacing the country's damaged infrastructure will account for at least $3.5bn, with the work being a priority before the economy can even begin to get back on its feet.
International donors and aid agencies have begun to commit funds for the reconstruction of Lebanon, with the World Bank announcing it would reallocate $40m in previously approved loans for rebuilding work and provide assistance in identifying immediate reconstruction needs.
Others to commit to providing assistance have been the US, which pledged $230m in immediate aid and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who promised to rebuild two towns in southern Lebanon, the region hardest hit during the war. At the height of the fighting between Hizbullah and Israel, Saudi Arabia provided $500m to prop up the Lebanese Central Bank, with a further offer of a similar amount in aid.
Lebanon is also looking to a donors' conference scheduled for August 31 to be held in Sweden as a source of further assistance.
However, while looking to the international community for help, the Lebanese government wants to keep its hands firmly on the reins of the reconstruction efforts. On August 23, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said that all funding for reconstruction projects would be channelled through government agencies. Financial assistance would be put into a general fund to be distributed at the discretion of the government, with donor countries only determining the terms of consulting and building contracts and pay the rebuilding costs, he said.
"Lebanon is not a house without any doormen," Siniora said. "If someone wants to donate a pencil to Lebanon, the cabinet has to approve it."
The determination to control the reconstruction process was supported by Joseph Saba, the World Bank's country director for Lebanon, who said that the government had excellent capacities and competencies
"This is not a traditional case where the international community needs to come in and set up parallel structures," he said.
Setting up structures of a different sort will be one of the first tasks the Lebanese government has to address, with an estimated 35,000 homes and businesses being destroyed in the fighting and 25% of the country's road bridges and overpasses shattered. This will only be the beginning of the work.
According to Jean Fabre, a spokesman for the UNDP, the 15 years of economic and social gains made after the end of the 1975-90 civil war in Lebanon were destroyed in the month long conflict.
"The damage is such that the last 15 years of work on reconstruction and rehabilitation, following the previous problems that Lebanon experienced, are now annihilated," Fabre told a press conference in Geneva on August 23.
The recent conflict appears to have claimed yet another casualty, with Fadl Shalak, head of Lebanon's Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR), announcing he was resigning after publicly disagreeing with the prime minister over the reconstruction plans and the apparent removal of the CDR from the process.
Shalak incurred the ire of Siniora and other senior government officials following an interview with television network CNN on August 22 in which he said that there was a lack of leadership in the planning of the country's recovery and that the present political situation was not conducive to quick reconstruction.
Under Shalak, the CDR - set up by the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri - has been the lead organisation in Lebanon's recovery from the civil war, with many of its showcase projects in Beirut.
One factor seen as limiting the initial stages of the reconstruction effort is Israel's ongoing air and naval blockade of Lebanon, imposed at the beginning of the war and now justified by Tel Aviv as crucial to stopping Hizbullah from rearming.
With Lebanon reliant on imports for almost all its energy needs, as well as for the materials required for rebuilding to start, Lebanese officials are expected to make the lifting of the blockage one of the main issues to be discussed with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan during his August 28 visit to the country.
