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Al Marzouqi Appointed General Coordinator for Negotiations and Head of GCC Negotiating Team

Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Jassem Albudaiwi meets with Dr. Raja bin Manahi Al Marzouqi, newly-appointed General Coordinator for Negotiations and Head of the Negotiating Team of the GCC, in Riyadh on Wednesday. (GCC)
Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Jassem Albudaiwi meets with Dr. Raja bin Manahi Al Marzouqi, newly-appointed General Coordinator for Negotiations and Head of the Negotiating Team of the GCC, in Riyadh on Wednesday. (GCC)
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Al Marzouqi Appointed General Coordinator for Negotiations and Head of GCC Negotiating Team

Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Jassem Albudaiwi meets with Dr. Raja bin Manahi Al Marzouqi, newly-appointed General Coordinator for Negotiations and Head of the Negotiating Team of the GCC, in Riyadh on Wednesday. (GCC)
Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Jassem Albudaiwi meets with Dr. Raja bin Manahi Al Marzouqi, newly-appointed General Coordinator for Negotiations and Head of the Negotiating Team of the GCC, in Riyadh on Wednesday. (GCC)

Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Jassem Albudaiwi held talks on Wednesday with Dr. Raja bin Manahi Al Marzouqi, newly-appointed General Coordinator for Negotiations and Head of the Negotiating Team of the GCC, on the occasion of his appointment.

The GCC Ministerial Council had on March 22 issued a decision to appoint Al Marzouqi, Saudi Arabia’s candidate, as General Coordinator for Negotiations and Head of the Negotiating Team of the GCC.

Meeting at the GCC General Secretariat in Riyadh, Albudaiwi congratulated Al Marzouqi on his appointment, wishing him success in carrying out his duties in advancing Gulf trade negotiations in a manner that meets the aspirations of the leaders and people of the GCC.

The officials also discussed the need to seize Gulf achievements in line with the provisions of the economic agreement. They underlined the ability of GCC countries to play a major role as an economic engine through strategic partnerships and free trade negotiations with a number of countries, regional blocs, and other economic and international groups.

They also stressed the means to accelerate the pace of partnerships to help advance growth and Gulf economic integration, through plans, visions and development programs.

Al Marzouqi expressed his gratitude to Albudaiwi and Gulf foreign ministers for the confidence in appointing him as the General Coordinator for Negotiations.

Al Marzouqi had previously worked as a Chief Economic Advisor at the Saudi Ministry of Economy and Planning. He worked as a faculty member at the Prince Saud Al Faisal Institute for Diplomatic Studies, and a collaborating expert with the International Monetary Fund.

He has also held several leadership and administrative positions in the government and private sectors, as well as international and regional organizations, the most recent of which was the position of CEO of the Gulf Monetary Council.

Al Marzouqi holds a PhD in Economics from Oklahoma State University-Stillwater, a Master's degree in Applied Mathematical Economics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in the United States, and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from King Saud University in Riyadh.

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Lebanon Hopes to Meet Foreign Bondholders in Coming Year, Finance Minister Says

A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon January 12, 2023. (Reuters)
A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon January 12, 2023. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Hopes to Meet Foreign Bondholders in Coming Year, Finance Minister Says

A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon January 12, 2023. (Reuters)
A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon January 12, 2023. (Reuters)

Lebanese officials hope to meet international bondholders to talk about restructuring debt in the next 12 months but are not planning any meetings at the World Bank/IMF Spring meetings next week, finance minister Yassin Jaber said on Tuesday.

Jaber spoke to Reuters just days before travelling to Washington for the Spring meetings - one of the biggest gatherings for financial policy makers and investors - where Lebanon will seek to show it has made progress on economic reforms to address the underlying causes of its financial crash.

Lebanon's economy began unravelling in 2019 after years of corruption and profligate spending by the country's ruling elite, and tipped into a sovereign default on its $31 billion of outstanding international bonds in March 2020.

Asked whether he planned to meet international bondholders in the next year, Jaber said, "definitely, definitely, this is as they say the elephant in the room."

"You can't escape it in the end. Lebanon is keen to resolve this issue, God willing," he said.

But the country needed to make progress on reforms - including reforming the banking sector and boosting government revenues through reforms to tax systems and customs collection - before it could start talks, Jaber said.

"We wanted, first of all, to do our homework, to put the whole reform process on the right track to get started. You can't have a house in total disorder and then say, 'I want to negotiate,'" he said.

The Lebanese delegation to the spring meetings will be the first outing at an IMF/World Bank meeting for Lebanon's new government, which took the reins in February and pledged to seek a new IMF programme. Jaber said it would be the first time a Lebanese finance minister attends in more than a decade.

Economy Minister Amer Bisat is scheduled to give an outlook on Lebanon's economy at a JPMorgan investor conference held on the sidelines, according to documents seen by Reuters.

The creditor group - which includes the heavyweight funds Amundi, Ashmore, BlackRock, BlueBay, Fidelity and T-Rowe Price as well as a group of smaller hedge funds - has recently appointed a financial advisor in preparation for debt talks.

Shortly after the bondholder group originally formed in 2021, it said it held a "blocking stake" of more than 25% across a number of Lebanon's bonds, making it a critical player in any debt restructuring.

The chunk of the bonds are also held by domestic commercial banks or the Lebanese central bank, which bought $3 billion of debt directly from a previous government in 2019.

Lebanon's bonds trade at deeply distressed levels of around 15-16 cents in the dollar. However, that is a sharp uptick from the single digits they traded in before Israel's military campaign badly weakened Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, long viewed as an obstacle to overcoming Lebanon's political paralysis.

In January, Lebanon's cabinet extended the statute of limitations on legal action over Eurobonds for another three years. Jaber said the move "reassured the bondholders".