A small matter of perspective
From the position of Lebanon’s Capital Markets Authority, the world is a garden of well-tended and super-fragrant roses, especially in regard to its own achievements. Thanks to the CMA’s regulatory...
View ArticleClik here to view.
To be or when to be
On the face of it, the story of financial markets and their regulator, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), looks like just another manifestation of Lebanese chaos. Institutions and measures that were...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A desire to monopolize the Lebanese forex market?
One issue has emerged as a stumbling block in the relations between the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) and parts of the financial industry in recent months. The concerned sub-sector of the financial...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A view from the other side
Law 161 was passed five years ago to create a financial regulatory agency and structure capital markets in Lebanon. Some market players are becoming restive and others are criticizing omissions in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Taking stock of the entrepreneurial ecosystem
The month of November is often the most pleasant month to live in Lebanon. The weather is nice, the mood is relaxed (with no holiday shopping stress yet), prices are in low-season mode to invite...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Into a new dimension
A new layer in the entrepreneurship ecosystem is taking shape through the increasing institutional presence of academic bodies, including both top-tier and less prominent universities in Lebanon....
View ArticleGetting competitive
Policy initiatives work best when they come as a full package. Seeking to elevate Lebanon’s knowledge economy from a struggling local sector to a world-class hub for entrepreneurship, in 2013 the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The legal building blocks of the ecosystem
Lebanon is an awful place to start an innovative, new business venture – from a legal perspective, at least. There are a few general rules that apply to startup companies: 1) Around 90 percent are...
View ArticleNot just the apps
There’s cross pollination potential being missed in a certain Lebanese ecosystem. Nowadays, everywhere you look there’s a link between technology and entrepreneurship that seems to suggest the latter...
View ArticleClik here to view.
United foods of Lebanon
On a typical Saturday morning at Souk El Tayeb’s farmers’ market, Umm Ali, a woman from a village in south Lebanon, sells her now famous saj sandwiches next to Raed, a farmer from north Lebanon who...
View ArticleToward a national strategy
Financial literacy is a hot global policy potato that emerged as the flavor of the month for October 2016, according to the taste buds of the Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lack of consumer confidence affecting demand
Fewer new cars will drive onto Lebanon’s streets in 2016 as sales declined slightly from last year. A slower market and tighter profit margins for car dealers have worried some but, like many watchers...
View ArticleConvincing the masses
Parliamentary elections are coming, and groups of hopeful upstarts are forming (one even financed what must be a rather expensive national billboard campaign) with an eye on defeating as many...
View ArticleClik here to view.
November 2016 table of contents
Illustration by Ivan Debs EDITORIAL It’s time for some serious changes From the Lebanese entrepreneurship ecosystem to capital markets, action needs to be taken LEADERS A small matter of perspective...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The momentum against deniers
The historic Paris Agreement The international agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions that came into place a year ago in Paris was a fruitful outcome of more than two decades of hard work and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Starting afresh
While 2016 was full of surprises, in our own backyard the year’s developments simply helped reconfirm what we already know and once again exposed the extent of our vulnerability and dependence. Our...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lebanon’s economy weathers a tough 2016
If there is one resolution Lebanon can commit to this coming new year, it is making good on the opportunity for a fresh start, to restart government institutions and implement sound policies that will...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Outlook brightens for renewables
Renewables are the energy source of the future. Not too many years back it was hard to conceive that the sun’s rays could be harnessed into electricity – those what-will-the-future-look-like Laserdisc...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From Paris to Marrakesh and beyond
Back in 2015, the world agreed to a new climate regime, dubbed the Paris Agreement. A new order was set, where both rich and less fortunate countries jointly engaged in the fight against climate...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Unemployed and underemployed
Perhaps few issues in Lebanon are cause for more spirited debate than access to employment for Syrian refugees. Yet due to insufficient data, the economics of the issue have only been credibly argued...
View Article