Overview July 1999: Lebanon

1. Universities and other institutions of higher education.

In Lebanon some 21 universities exist, but over 90% of the student population attend one of the seven major institutions: the public Lebanese University and the private Beirut Arab University, Saint Joseph University, the American University of Beirut, the Lebanese American University, Notre Dame University and the University of Kaslik.

The top administrators of all these seven universities welcomed the ESIS II project. Special appointments have to be arranged in order to commit key actors from within the organisations to contribute to the project and promote its implementation.

2. Schools and other institutions for several education and educational training.

The population of schools is about 2000 institutions 65% approximately being from the public sector and 35% from the private sector. In general the public schools lack adequate equipment and qualified personnel to serve the information society project despite the continuous effort made by the ministry of education towards this objective. The private schools are better prepared to contribute to ESIS II. They usually use computers in the administration and some are considering to be linked by a network. This is basically the case for establishments belonging to the same religious order.

Some colleges are running computer courses for their pupils and are offering them the facilities for computer clubs.

3. The press and audio-visual media organisations.

On professional ground, these organisations are already convinced of the importance of the ESIS II project, as they are aware of its content and objectives. Some of these organisations are offering on line consultation through the Internet. Some are building information databases to be offered to their subscribers.

4. Large financial companies (banks, insurance comp).

They are already offering on the Internet some information services with secured access to some simple transactions (home banking). Many have installed automated teller machines to serve their customers throughout their network of branches. Some are providing free access to economic and financial databases.

5. Professional associations and consular bodies.

All these organisations are already aware of the benefits of joining the information society. They are facing however some problems convincing their members to move rapidly in that direction. The reason behind this reluctance is sometimes due to the lack of modern managerial skills.

6. The Public sector.

It is a common say that the public administration in Lebanon has to change and that it has to move towards using the new technologies to make this change sustainable. The Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform OMSAR has put forward plans to computerise some offices in different ministries and build official web sites to stimulate and enhance the image of the civil service. The implementation seems to be progressing rather slowly.