Update April 2000: Lebanon
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Update April 2000: Lebanon |
The quarter under review (January - March 2000) has been marked by unfavorable security conditions due to the bombing by Israeli planes of vital electric infrastructure on February 7. This military action has deprived large parts of the Lebanese territory of electricity for four consecutive weeks, thus disrupting the daily life activity at personal and business levels. At the Government level, the whole activity was polarized by the crisis.
This situation affected the promotional activity relating to the IS. Some events scheduled for the month of February were cancelled while other events were postponed until end March.
I. The month of January is traditionally a month of low level activity in general, as businesses are busy restarting a year after a period of somehow long holidays. Nevertheless, a big event took place on the 18th of January focused on e-banking. This event was organized by the Association of Banks in Lebanon (
www.abl.org.lb) and the International Chamber of Commerce in Beirut. It was a one day event to which high ranking representatives from the banking sector were invited. The aim of the program was to raise awareness among the decision makers to what e-banking is, and also to assess the level of readiness of the sector to enter fully in this direction.The speakers were from various organizations:
1. Dr Louis HOBEIKA from the International Chamber of Commerce – Beirut who presented the perspective set by the Chamber and its commitment to promote the introduction of IT in all sectors.
2. Dr Makram SADER from the Association of Banks in Lebanon who gave a short presentation on the difficulties that are facing the banks in Lebanon when considering an e-banking application especially in relation to the physical network performance, the security issue and the Human Resources capabilities.
3. Ing. Ali NAKHLÉ from the Central Bank who presented the future configuration of the network that could facilitate the implementation of e-banking once built according to the sector needs.
4. Mr Maroun CHAMMAS from the ISPs community (GM of Data Management) who presented the role of an ISP in providing e-banking solutions.
5. Mr Charbel FAKHOURY – Business development Manager at Microsoft – Beirut who presented the available e-banking resources using Microsoft technology.
6. Dr David FARES from the U.S. Council for International Business, who presented an overview of what is going on the major financial banking places, and stressing on aspects of public confidence in e-commerce.
II. The second big event to occur during this quarter was the Internet festival organized by the francophone association AUPELF <
www.lb.refer.org > to raise awareness of the students at school and at university to the benefits of building capabilities in searching useful material on the Internet. The event was held on the 17th of March and was located in the premises of the Lebanese University < www.ul.edu.lb > with the participation of students from this University and Saint Joseph University < www.usj.edu.lb >, Balamand University < www.balamand.edu.lb > and the University of Holy Spirit – Kaslik < www.usek.edu.lb >. The ISP Data Management < www.dm.net.lb > offered for the occasion a large bandwidth link to add to the success of the event.It is worth noting that the AUPELF (Association des Universités Partiellement ou Entièrement de Langue Française) is a worldwide association and that its Bureau in Beirut manages the francophone cultural activity in the Arab Middle-East.
III. Under the patronage of Mr Issam NAAMAN, Minister of P and T of Lebanon, a seminar was organized on "Telecommunications of the new millenium" and "Mobile Communication Technologies for the 21st century". The promotor of this event ARABCOM (25 – 28 March) <
www.arabcom.com.lb > is the managing team of the monthly magazine HITEK < www.hitekmagazine.com.lb > under the leadership of Mrs Katia TAYAR in collaboration with the Xperimental Group, specializing in communication and event launching and managing.The ARABCOM seminar, running for the third consecutive year, is widely recognized as one of the region’s best telecom forums focusing on emerging new technology services, solutions and products.
The seminar was organized in plenary sessions, parallel panels and workshops where interaction between speaker and audience occurred frequently. Various topics were presented and debated relating to the development of telecom networks, information infrastructure, interconnectivity, satellite services, mobile communications, Internet and e-commerce. The key speakers were personalities from International bodies like the European Union and the ITU or Ministers and high ranking officials from the Arab countries.
In his opening speech to the ARABCOM conference, Lebanon’s Minister of P&T did not mention the draft law on telecommunications reported by the press on the 10th of March. He mainly stressed the financial aspects of his reform instead giving to think that in the near future, the Ministry is going to slash rates in conformity with International and Arab Telecommunications Unions. He gave to think also that maybe a third cellular licence could be granted to the now public utility OGERO (see reg report) prior to its possible privatization.
Among other telecom innovations "that will affect our lives", the Minister mentioned plans to carry on development projects for satellite and Internet telephony. It is worth noting here, that a memorandum of understanding was signed in November 99 between the Government of Lebanon and the worldwide Skybridge company. Skybridge owns a constellation of 80 LEO satellites in the Ku-band (10 – 18 Ghz) with short signal propagation of 30 milliseconds, a full development of 200 gateway stations worldwide and 215 Gbps of total system capacity.
In parallel to the ARABCOM seminar, an exhibition of advanced telecom and IT hardware and software was held over two days.
IV. On the 28th of March, a seminar was held at the French Business School of Beirut (École Supérieure des Affaires - ESA) on the occasion of the visit to Lebanon of the French Minister for Cooperation and Francophony, Mr Charles JOSSELIN. The main topic of the seminar was the Information Society. Two key notes were delivered on this occasion, one by Dr Nasser SAIDI, Minister of Economy and Commerce and the other by Minister JOSSELIN. Both Ministers stressed the importance for the lebanese business community to embrace the wave of new technologies as a mean to achieve high economic and social performance. The French Minister promised assistance to the Lebanese Government in the framework of the traditional partnership between France and Lebanon.
Four topics were then presented in four sessions by distinguished speakers:
The first topic was Information Technology and Management;
The second was about services through the Internet mainly news services (radio and TV) stock exchange and electronic commerce;
The third was about Internet in Society mainly the management of confidential personal data, cultural sharing, economic battle over content and the State role in regulation and modernization;
The fourth was a presentation by Mr Riad SALAMÉ, governor of the Central Bank, of the perspectives and challenges of e-banking in Lebanon. It is worth recalling, in this respect, that a recent law voted in November 99 gave the Central Bank a regulatory authority on the banking and financial institutions in what relates to e-banking.
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