BEIRUT – The Association of Lebanese Business People in the World (RDCL World) held a Board of Trustees meeting headed by the Board Chairman HE Dr. Talal Abu Ghazaleh, who is also the Chairman and Founder of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Global (TAG.Global).
The purpose of the meeting that was moderated by Dr. Fouad Zmokhol, President of the Association, was to apprise the business community of the views and the guidelines of Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh in the wake of the health and the economic challenges of the coronavirus and the impact of the virus invasion on the current conditions in Lebanon particularly the economic, the financial and the banks’ related hardships.
At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Zmokhol referred to the crises anticipated by Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh during the RDCL World meeting last year which turned out to be real in 2020He stated that members of RDCL World are interested to know how to prepare the business climate to overcome the coronavirus and be prepared for the post-coronavirus era in view of liquidity shortages and recession.
In this regard, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh stated that the coronavirus crisis would last for much longer than the politicians declare, saying that, “we need at least one year before a cure, a vaccine or an antiviral drug is invented.” adding:
“Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, I affirmed that we have to be prepared for the post-crisis era, but, I was criticized and accused of placing economic interests before peoples’ lives. That is not true. What I said and I still say is that saving lives is important, and so is the protection of the economy which is essential for those saved lives. I insist that we should not allow such a virus to destroy our future and our economy, keeping in mind that we must secure for our people decent means of living such as work, accommodation and services. This is exactly what I warned of,” Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh said.
He emphasized the importance of pursuing a two-track strategy; one is to fight the outbreak of the virus and the second is to take immediate and drastic measures to address the impact of the epidemic on the economy. “We, at TAG.Global, since 2017 have taken enormous steps and measures to guarantee sustainability of our business,” he said.
“Unfortunately, all Arab countries are looking into means on how to increase state revenues which is important, yet, what is most important is the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which leads to increased revenues without raising taxes. Countries have to consider increasing the tax base without increasing direct taxes.” he added.
Responding to an inquiry on the feasibility of increasing taxes in Lebanon, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh expressed hopes that the Lebanese Government would not resort to such measures until the economy is stimulated and adequate economic growth is achieved.
Additionally, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh emphasized that banks in Lebanon are not broke although they suffer hardships, noting that the monetary policy of any country is based on a an equilateral triangle similar to the Bermuda Triangle, the government, the central bank and banks. The banks give loans to the government and to the Central Bank, hence, if the banks recover their money from the two said entities (government and the central bank), then there would be no liquidity problem.”
“Out of my love for Lebanon; a dear country to my heart in where I lived and received my education, I want to point out that the crisis in Lebanon is not only banks’-related.It is mostly related to spending beyond available means and that is how the deficit had occurred. Yet, the catastrophe might happen, God forbid if the government decided to adopt the haircut or the capital control options control which means that the State goes bankrupt not just the banks,” Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh clarified.
×
![img]()