The Lebanese Industrial sector has always proved its resilience despite all imposed factors counter-balancing its continuous efforts."
An interview with Mr. Mounir Bsat, Secretary of Foreign Affairs | Head of Export Promotion Board
How would you define the strengths of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists? The Association of Lebanese Industrialists (ALI) represents the interests of the Lebanese Industrial body, voicing their concerns and problem to the concerned public authorities. The main objective is to increase the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector by lobbying for a business-friendly regulatory environment, and enhancing the public awareness regarding the positive, much needed impact of manufacturing on economic growth. We try all the time to provide our members a wide array of value added, market driven services, and maintaining sustainability of a strong association through continuous training and capacity building.
What changes in your strategies did you have to make in order to help your members in this crisis?
Industrial Sector was always in a state of crisis, even before October 17th. We were always threatened by extensive operating expenses, loose cross-borders and dumping of products in local markets, and a “hostile” business environment due to old and obsolete business and tax regulations. The crisis has added the financial component which represented a vital threat, especially for industries relying on the local market, because of their inability to secure hard currency to finance the import\purchase of raw materials. ALI succeeded, after re-prioritizing their objectives, focused on providing adequate solutions for this crucial issue: ALI Lobbied with BDL to establish the Oxygen Fund, which represents a Fintech platform to provide financing solutions to Industrialists, and with the cooperation and pressure of the Ministry of Industry, BDL also allocated $ 100M from its reserves to enable industrialists to use their own funds stuck in Lebanese Banks to finance the same purpose.
