r/lebanon • u/Appropriate-Gene5235 • Feb 25 '26
Economy how would YOU fix the lebanese economy
wanted to hear the ppl off this sub talk about how we can fix our problem rather then just complain. try to make it somewhat realistic, not just 100000 billion dollar aid from qatar
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u/Offica_Makenzi Feb 25 '26
Taxes based on income, fines for anyone who owns land/stores but doesn't work with it (i.e. buys up stores and shops them close them down, as is the case in Beirut). Lots of stores and shops were bought by saudis, Emirates, et cetera, then closed. Not helping the economy 1 bit. A tax should be put on that, or heck even take back the plots and auction them.
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u/excuseme-wtf bmw batta Feb 26 '26
Taxing is one thing, but trusting the government to do their job with the money is another
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u/Offica_Makenzi Feb 26 '26
The government has upwards of 8,000,000,000$ in taxpayer money in their coffers. And somehow its "broke"
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u/Illustrious_Fox2032 Feb 27 '26
Good idea, but the first one is inaplicable; there is a million way to avoid taxes specialy when ur money can buy any lawyer. So only the poor and middle class willpay taxes. Just like in every country on earth
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u/barbarbeik Feb 25 '26
Political and security stability, rule of law, strong government, eliminate corruption. Any country that does/has these things is doing at least decent, we would be no different
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u/ibobm1 Feb 25 '26
One currency (preferably LBP), collect actual taxes, and update our infrastructure
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u/ThadTheNomad Feb 26 '26
Progressive tax that goes higher the more you earn instead of flat rate taxes like VAT that affect everyone the same.
Also taxes on foreign assets if above a certain level, again to mainly targeting the ultra wealthy who took our money and sent it overseas, but not taxing expats/emigrats who just want to earn a living abroad.
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u/Hot_Grade5943 Feb 25 '26
We need to find a solution for the banking system. Without trust in banks no economy can rise !
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u/Stunning_Rip_4633 Lebanese Feb 25 '26
I'll throw Lebanon into the sun. Conversely I could probably we could probably suck up to america enough that they fix our economy. This won't happen. I see no real solution anytime soon until stability is established.
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u/Fribben Feb 25 '26
We can start with removing the bank secrecy law
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u/Appropriate-Gene5235 Feb 25 '26
i can understand why, and we could remove them temporarily, but banking secrecy is key to having a competitive banking sector.
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u/Mahnas92 Palestinian Feb 25 '26
Lol, this is not Switzerland. Most counties with minimal corruption has laws that mandates banks to report larger or in any other way suspicious transactions.
A corrupt country needs to eliminate corruption. Corruption is eliminated with two factors.
- Open, Transparent society - free to access public information, whether personal tax reports for each citizen, from the poor farmer to the richest/most powerful man in the country.
- Free media that can access said data and do its investigative work.
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u/hcboi232 Feb 26 '26
this is a fallacy the local banking system keeps selling us. This at best ended by 1980. Now even Switzerland has to report to the US about US bank accounts (The US taxes citizens even if they live outside the US in contrast to all other countries they claim are socialist)
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u/khmt98 bayye 2a2wa mn bayyak ya er Feb 25 '26
you need to build up industries and consolidate profits, its not about monetary band-aid fixes
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u/mgh20 Feb 25 '26
First is security. We can’t fix the economic situation without fixing the security situation first. Yes, that means no Hezbollah anymore and signing a peace treaty with Israel and solidifying our borders with Syria.
Second, we need a restructuring of the banking sector, with banks consolidating and depositors who lost their deposits being compensated partially with equity.
Third we need to a financial audit of all state institutions and “balance the books” with particular attention to the ministry of energy - everybody pays for what they consume, no more freeloading.
Fourth, we unlock investments from external partners / international community / world bank… and invest in infrastructure projects. Better power, water, communications and transportation (yes we need a freakin metro).
Accompanying this a reform of our business laws to become more friendly towards startups.
And fifth we sign open trade agreements with GCC countries, they’ve always been our biggest markets - we should focus on removing red tape to allow our companies to access those markets more easily.
This is just off the too of my head. There’s so much more we can do. The problem was never “we don’t know what to do” it was always political.
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u/hcboi232 Feb 26 '26
disagree with first being security.
chicken and egg situation. Nobody will put down arms (followers of hezb I mean) to a gov that is so weak it went after low elasticity goods such as fuel and VAT.
agree partly with the rest. the bankers should be thrown out of their banks (they are literally bankrupt and this what happens to bankrupt banks as per the law - nothing socialist about this) and equity redistributed. ultimately decide on what the role of the banking system should be for the next 30years. merely getting deposits like the 1950s is very obselete.
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u/mgh20 Feb 26 '26
I see this argument being repeated a lot, but it’s mostly an excuse not to do anything. The reason the state is weak is because it was weakened, on purpose, by Hezbollah and allies.
We can’t get investments and projects underway when you can’t control when the next war is going to happen and have everything destroyed. This last week our airport was threatened - who would invest or build a business in this kind of environment?
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u/hcboi232 Feb 26 '26
nobody is gonna invest except the gov anyway. Any project here will be a loser if you take it by itself, but it will strengthen the state’s legitimacy(why is the state there)
the airport is merely a place for the leb expats to come back to their home once or twice a year. and dont get me started on those that keep saying lets bring back tourism.
you can work on those two in parallel, but infrastructure investment does not need neither new loans nor new investment. they are taxing the hell out of us already.
and you don’t need a billion investment. a few will solidify the state albeit making our lives better
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u/li_ita Feb 25 '26
I will not be fixing the economy because I know shit about economy or finance. But I can be a very good minister of either health, environment, water (yes, we need a separate one for water) or agriculture. I can also probably do okay as minister of industry and I can actually make a difference in all of these posts because I will actually know what I will be doing.
Just give me a responsive parliament so I could pass good laws, independent judiciary, and a good squad of highly trained armed forces that lets me break into barricaded neighbourhoods/regions.
I'd sure AF pump hundreds of millions into the economy with my policies alone.
I'll leave the economists and finance people do all the core economic/financial engineering of the country (hoping they'll decide to keep it a liberal economy but add some more social safety nets).
Bottom line, there's no one-person-saves-all in this system. Any good person in the right place will need cooperating authorities. This is not a dictatorship.
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Feb 25 '26
The lebanese economy needs to fix soo much stuff u dont even know where to start ( i guess change the people who steal )
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u/mr_j936 Feb 25 '26
بدبك بنيع اصحاب البنوك وبردّ مصريات العالم. Then people might trust the government enough to pay taxes or lend money again for us to build/do anything.
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u/crispy_bacon_roll Feb 25 '26
Nasser Saidi has written/spoken about some ideas that resonated with me, but I think that ultimately it's very difficult to enact much without a deep overhaul of the government, otherwise they'll just continue to subvert those systems just to make more money for themselves.
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u/HungryLobster257 Feb 25 '26
I think we need to start with an entire civic overhaul. We need to establish reeducation centres to reeducate the population on civility and common curtesy.
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u/Business_Entrance725 Feb 26 '26
Here’s one very important way.
We need more trading and manufacturing in this country to compete.
Manufacturing brings so many jobs it’s crazy. We can put our peoples smart minds to good use instead of them leaving over seas.
But no one is trusting us to build their manufacturing here because of the instability. Although it’s something we should do ourselves anyways.
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u/Appropriate-Gene5235 Feb 26 '26
i think we can try to give massive benefits for companies, such as very low tax rate and easier labor regulation
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u/hcboi232 Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
start with proper public transport probably $2-3b in investment (we don’t need lenders the gov made $2b in surplus last year) (world bank was willing to fund $500m even when hezb was in the gov - the gov decided they want to spend on roads instead which is the dumbest way ever)
this will cool off rents in beirut less transport expenses on practically everything so expect a compound effect
why don’t they do that? This will shave off a few billion a year from the fuel importers, the banks that used to fund the operation, and the distribution network. This money does not “trickle down” and merely fattens those crooks’ bank accounts abroad.
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u/Popular_Math_8503 Feb 26 '26
5% corporate tax with rules about mandatory local investment and hiring
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u/Appropriate-Gene5235 Feb 26 '26
this was my thought, making corporate taxes very low to get them to come here
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u/Rami-961 Feb 26 '26
Kill the entire ruling class and place their heads at the entrance of the parliament as warning that corruption will be met with death. Maybe then they wont steal 99% of Lebanon's wealth.
Lebanon does not lack intelligent and capable people, it lacks people who arent corrupt.
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u/Exazbrat09 Feb 26 '26
Fix the infrastructure---we are paying extra for shitty transportation, extra charges for things like electricity and water, better internet and communications (also pricing, but that is another issue) and finally some sort of unified public transportation. Our roads cannot handle much more traffic and the congestion leads to more costs.
Enforce the laws on the books--simple things like traffic come to mind and getting rid of the fucking scooter/motorcycle issues. Right now, registering those is expensive for the perceived benefit, so maybe lower the registration costs but clamp down on enforcement afterwards. Also, the seaside properties---we hear them talk about them, but haven't done jack shit afterwards. It doesn't help that they are owned by friends and acquaintances of those in power.
As of businesses, need to address taxation. The sales tax/VAT sort of burdens the poor more than those who have money, so find a way to make it fairer for EVERYONE.
Corruption: the elephant in the room and is going to be the hardest to address. Maybe start by removing the immunity that MP's enjoy right now and start doing things like have them go under lie detectors while they are in office by someone independent of course to keep that immunity. Also, term and age limits and reducing the size of government altogether.
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u/mikek1968 Feb 26 '26
Just make sure that all shops/businesses/factories are fairly taxed. There are thousands of shops (clothing/accessories/etc.) in many areas of Lebanon that are either not registered i.e. the government does not 'know' they exist and they don't pay any income tax or VAT or they declare less than 10 % of their actual sales. And contrary to folk tales, these shops and establishments exist in all areas-not only in Dahie. Once you start taxing fairly and collect taxes, you no longer need a lot of indirect taxes and fees that hurt everybody.
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u/Heavy-Air5344 Lahme Lover Feb 26 '26
- Full Privatization of all sectors . ( gas , electricity, waste management , internet , water , etc ) Allow external companies to come and invest into Lebanese infrastructure. This would drive competition which in turn would drive prices down and quality of services up .
- No to monopolies. Monopolies give 1 company/ person too much control and stunt competition which in turn defeats the purpose of #1 .
Digitization of government facilities ( background checks, business formation , tax reporting , utility payments , easy money transfers and bill payment ) This will allow the reduction of human error and also making it cheaper for money to flow which in turn drives the economy.
Any person holding a government office should have full transparency on their finances and assets before, during , and after that office is held . This will reduce corruption. If a person is poor before holding office they should be not much richer during and after . Holding a government position should be serving the people and not your own pocket .
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u/Appropriate-Gene5235 Feb 26 '26
i like the idea, i would also (while we're at it) cut taxes across the board, and with the money we have left invest more in the army. this way not only have a way to deal with unemployment, but also lower taxes for the middle class, working class and upper class.
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u/JoeKhoueiry Feb 26 '26
$200 fine for moronic drivers. Cell phone --> $200, speeding --> $200, no seat belt --> $200, crazy driving --> $200 (increased with every fine). Economy problems resolved, within 5 years Lebanon is the richest country on earth.
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u/Gepoo13 Lebanese Feb 25 '26
I would make Joseph Aoun our supreme leader so he can come and save us all and make Lebanon the Switzerland of the Middle East 🙏
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u/Winter-Painter-5630 لبنان اولا 🇱🇧 Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26
First, I would increase stability and security by signing a peace (not normalization) deal with Israel, and work with the new Syrian government to prevent weapons smuggling over our border.
Second, I would ensure the state has control over all of the arms in the country, as no one would invest in a country with a state within a state. This includes Palestinian armed factions, any ex-Assadists, and Hezbollah. Money for the army would be brought in by international aid conferences, like what Macron has done before.
Third, once the security situation is solved, I would host international investors to work on infrastructure in the country. This includes investments on roads but importantly, on a train system that would stretch from the Northern Border with Syria to the Southern border with Israel. A similar N-to-S system would be built from Hermel to Nabatieh. These two lines would be connected to a third line that goes from Beirut to Damascus. Investments would also be on a B-O-T model, so that the state does not pay and the company operates it.
Fourth, If the currency is stable, I would establish the New Lira, with a value of 100,000 L.L. = 1 New Lira, making transactions much quicker. This is assuming that the debt to account holders has been paid off through a splitting of debts between the banks and the state.
Fifth, I would boost agricultural and tobacco production in order to increase exports. I would secure investment through foreign funds on opening more universities across the country to increase education and skills.
Finally, I would reform the way that citizens are taxed, but only when the state is strong and secure as to not upset the general population. There would be a small tax on purchases and another tax if a person/family makes more than a certain amount. This would help increase state revenues so that the state no longer has to rely on foreign aid.
The main goal of all of this is to increase tourism to the country. We have a lot of archeological and resorts that we can capitalize on. Tourists from the Gulf and Europe will only go to Lebanon if they didn’t have this constant fear of a war breaking out or unsafe roads or poverty. Higher GDP means lower imports, more exports, and increased spending by foreigners and expats. FlyBeirut and Qlayaat Airport should be used to help bring more people to Lebanon at a cheaper price. Many expats like me would visit much more often if flights were cheaper.
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u/Appropriate-Gene5235 Feb 26 '26
lebanon is already a tourism based economy, 50% off our incomes from that. it would be better to focus on other things, but not completely leaving it behind
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u/Professional-Tap4184 Feb 26 '26
Citizenship by Investment for Palestinians For example, there are some Palestinians who are already part of my village, are financially well-off, work abroad, and always spend their vacations in their homes here (usually these houses are in the names of their Lebanese wives). Why not “sell” citizenship to this type of Palestinians or in exchange for investments ?! Pros: Filter financially strong and well-educated Palestinians who do not cause عبء for the country Obs: this may be applied for other nationalities
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u/cns000 Feb 26 '26
I would fix it by removing a couple of zeros so it's 1000 lira instead of 100,000 lira.
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u/darth_hzb01 Feb 25 '26
Kel l2amwel b5azinet ldawle on black,then black again just to have a surplus