The Lebanese cabinet’s decision earlier this week to approve a new electricity plan, set to reform the country’s electricity sector, left positive echoes in the French capital and a number of European countries that participated in the 2018 Paris CEDRE conference to support Lebanon's infrastructure and economy.
A European ambassador told Asharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday that the electricity plan was the first step in the roadmap to reform the sector.
“Things after the approval of the plan would not be the same as before it,” he said.
The ambassador noted that the electricity sector was the biggest burden on the state, costing it $40 billion of its budget, or about 46 percent of the public debt deficit.
A report published by the American consulting firm McKinsey said the quality of Lebanon's electricity supply in 2017-2018 was the fourth worst in the world after Haiti, Nigeria and Yemen.
A European source in Beirut told Asharq Al-Awsat that the CEDRE conference requested from the Lebanese government and the private sector to reform 72 items. It also demanded that Beirut show a certain capacity of absorbing funds and how they are spent through CEDRE mechanisms and the World Bank.
The CEDRE conference held in April 2018 pledged aid worth $11 billion, promising to stave off an economic crisis.
A Lebanese ministerial source told Asharq Al-Awsat a meeting would be held next month in Washington to assess what Lebanon has reformed in the past year, adding that until few weeks ago, the country had still failed to implement any of the requested reforms.
The source explained that if implemented, the CEDRE reforms should benefit the whole of Lebanon.
“Lebanon should abandon politics, and address development projects and what people need,” the source said.
