Saudi and Lebanese businessmen opened a two-day forum here on Sunday which both sides said aimed at boosting already strong links, with the Lebanese looking to attract more Saudi investments in their tourism and service sectors.
"We are seeking to attract private Saudi investments in tourism and services in general, but also in information technology projects," Samih Barbir, head of the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon (IDAL), told AFP.
Barbir said IDAL would within three weeks announce the launch of a technology park to be built in Damour, south of the capital Beirut, that will aim to host international IT firms, taking advantage of Lebanon's highly skilled manpower.
The technology zone will take two years to be up and running, Barbir said, although he declined to reveal the projected cost.
The main such IT zone in the region is now located in the Gulf emirate of Dubai.
Barbir said Saudi private investments in Lebanon stood at some 300 million dollars at the end of 2002, out of 650 million dollars in total private Arab investments.
The Lebanese hoped to encourage Saudis to enter into more joint ventures, helped among others by a 2001 investment development law "which offers a range of incentives and tax breaks."
Law 360 effectively went into force in January 2003 after its statutes were enacted, he said.
The forum was opened by Riyadh Governor Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, under whose auspices it is being held, and Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
Hariri, a business tycoon who made his billions in Saudi Arabia, has strong ties with the Saudi royal family and is seen as the architect of bilateral economic links.
Hariri, Prince Salman and other prominent speakers at the opening all underlined the long-standing relations between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, which sponsored the 1989 Taef agreement that ended Lebanon's 15-year civil war a year later and in which Hariri, then still not in government, had been a main facilitator.
"The private sector has now become the driving force in any effort to integrate Arab economies. Our duty as Arab governments is to provide the legal and institutional framework to facilitate private sector initiatives and let the private sector do its job," Hariri told the gathering.
Rauf Abu Zaki, chairman of the Al-Iqtissad Wal Aamal (Economy and Business) Group which is a main organiser of the second Saudi-Lebanese Forum, noted that the meeting had been due to take place in Beirut late last year after the first round was held in Riyadh earlier in 2003.
But organisers chose to move it to Riyadh as "a token of solidarity" with the Saudis after their capital was rocked by a series of suicide bombings in May and November 2003 that left 52 people dead and scores injured.
By doing so, the Lebanese were only returning the favour to Saudi Arabia, which stood by their country every step of the way, Abu Zaki said.
Comments
Comments are closed.