BEIRUT (Xinhua) – Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has called for the quick election of a new president to help overcome the country’s problems and support people in dealing with their daily struggles.
“Have mercy on people and stop the useless arguments,” Mikati said while addressing the different political parties, according to a statement by the Lebanese Council of Ministers.
Lebanon has been running without a president since October 2022, when the term of former president Michel Aoun ended. The country has been mired in a severe economic crisis since 2019, and the political impasse is only making things worse.
The Lebanese parliament has failed to elect a new president 12 times, because of a lack of consensus among the country’s political factions.
The deadlock is a major obstacle to Lebanon’s economic recovery as a new president is needed to form a new government and implement the reforms required by the International Monetary Fund, which has offered Lebanon a bailout package but has made clear that the reforms must be implemented before the money is released.
Lebanese experts and businessmen also urged Lebanese authorities on Tuesday to enact significant reforms, including bank restructuring and the implementation of proper legislation to encourage investment from Lebanese expatriates in their home country.
The call came during a session at the 3rd Emigrants Economic Conference held in Beirut, which saw the participation of over 300 attendees from 30 countries.
Lebanese Energy and Water Minister Walid Fayyad said the banking sector needs to be restructured in order to restore confidence in the industry and attract investment from expatriates.
“Investment in Lebanon today is based on equity, so we have expensive services. We need to be able to give credit to the private sector to activate the economy again,” Fayyad said, adding this begins with the government addressing losses in the banking sector and restructuring depositors’ funds.
“This is the top priority” as the collapse of the banking sector poses the greatest challenge to Lebanon in attracting investments, he noted.
Nidal Abou Zeki, the secretary general of the Lebanese Business Council in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, noted that Lebanon could benefit from the vast knowledge and capital of its expatriates by enacting appropriate legislation to protect investors’ funds.