After having been appointed by the Lebanese Government in October 2017 to conduct a comprehensive study on the Lebanese economy and set a vision for its future, McKinsey & Company’s “Lebanon Economic Vision” was published last week by the Ministry of Economy & Trade. The report provided a detailed description of the current state of the Lebanese economy, identified major areas and priority sectors to be tackled, and suggested action plans and systematic approaches to achieve a set of targets by each of the years 2025 and 2035. With a total of 160 initiatives, the report aims at addressing major economic challenges (high volatility, widespread corruption, elevated fiscal pressures, and low productivity in high-potential sectors…) faced by Lebanon. In this vein, the “Lebanon Economic Vision” seeks to transform the country’s economy into a productive, successful, and competitive one by 2025 and a high-income, diversified, knowledge-based, and sustainable one by 2035, and to promote its government into a fiscally-disciplined, credible, and accountable one by 2025 and secure a healthy macro-fiscal position for it by 2035. Said initiatives were mainly focused on the agricultural (15 initiatives), industrial (12 initiatives), tourism (22 initiatives), financial services (28 initiatives), and knowledge economy (28 initiatives) sectors (detailed information on each is presented in the lowermost table), yet other important areas were also covered:

- Diaspora: adopting a proactive emigration policy whereby Lebanese emigrants become highly engaged in Lebanon’s economic and social development and develop a strong lobbying mechanism in order to advocate for Lebanon’s interests;

- Infrastructure: launching and completing critical infrastructure projects (such as the Beirut rapid-bus public transport network, Beirut Airport renovation and expansion, and fiber network), boosting Beirut’s efficiency, and entirely reforming the power sector;

- Government enablers: drastically improving public administration (implementing anti-corruption measures and government digitalization and allowing private sector participation and monitoring) and legislative efficiency (enhancing parliament activity and productivity) and developing effective fiscal policy (following an action plan to reduce fiscal deficit by 1% annually, monitor public expenditures, and stimulate revenue growth).