NNA - The Council of Ministers approved the strategy of advancement in the financial sector, and assigned the Minister of Public Works and Transport to contract with SGS to provide a technical service related to activating the work of the scanner in the port of Beirut in order to enhance the security of shipments.

The Council approved the request of the Ministry of Public Health from Banque du Liban to pay an amount of 35 million US dollars per month for the next four months to purchase medicines for incurable, chronic and cancer diseases, medical supplies, milk and raw materials for the drug industry.

It also agreed to raise the fees in the cellular and fixed lines sectors.

At the beginning of the session, the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, thanked the Prime Minister and the ministers for their efforts in the short period of their government's life, noting that the parliamentary elections took place in acceptable conditions, and calling on the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities to publish the results in detail within the specified deadline.

For his part, Prime Minister Najib Mikati expressed his satisfaction with the ministers' work and cooperation.  He praised the efforts made to hold the parliamentary elections.

The Cabinet held its last session at 2:30 this afternoon at Baabda Palace, headed by the President of the Republic.

At the end of the session, Information Minister Ziad Makari read the following statement:

The Council of Ministers held its last meeting before the government entered the caretaker stage, headed by the President of the Republic and in the presence of the Prime Minister and the ministers with the absence of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates who is outside Lebanon.

At the beginning of the session, the President of the Republic said  it was the last session of the government after the holding of the parliamentary elections and the beginning of the mandate of the new Parliament . He spoke about the government's work during the past months, praising the understanding that prevailed between the ministers and the work they did in the short period, thanking the prime minister and ministers for their efforts in this direction.

PM Mikati said that the government worked as one working group, recording his satisfaction with the ministers' work and cooperation.  He praised the efforts made to hold the parliamentary elections by the concerned ministries, public administrations and security and administrative agencies.

Afterwords, the Council of Ministers began studying the agenda. The Minister of Interior presented an assessment of the election process, and then the ministers handed over reports on what had been achieved in their ministries since the formation of the government.

The Council of Ministers studied the items on the agenda, and took the appropriate decisions:

- The Deputy Prime Minister presented the strategy for advancement in the financial sector and a memorandum on economic and financial policies that was  approved with the the objection of Ministers Ali Hamiya, Mustafa Bayram, Abbas Hajj Hassan, and Muhammad Al-Murtadha, while Minister Abbas Al-Halabi expressed reservations. i 

- The Ministry of Communications offered to reduce about 42.65 million US dollars in fresh from the cost of operating cellular networks.

- Assigning the Minister of Public Works and Transport to contract with SGS to provide a technical service related to activating the work of the scanner in the port of Beirut to enhance the security of shipments.

- The Ministry of Health’s request was approval to ask the Banque du Liban to pay an amount of 35 million US dollars per month for the next four months for the purchase of medicines for incurable, chronic and cancerous diseases, medical supplies, milk and raw materials for the manufacture of medicine.

- As for the item of raising the customs dollar, it was withdrawn from discussion by the Minister of Finance.

Q&A

Minister Makari answered the journalists question on weather the price flour was raised?

He added without the raise in the communications sector it would have collapsed completely.

The Minister of Communications, Johnny Al-Qarm, spoke and said:

I would like to tell the Lebanese people that the telecommunications sector will not stop, and this is a very positive thing.  From today I am able to think about improving this sector.

Minister of Communications, Johnny Al-Qarm, spoke to journalists saying:

I would like to tell the Lebanese people that the telecommunications sector will not stop, and this is a very positive thing.  From today I am able to think about improving this sector.

And to clarify, he said: “the increase in price will be a rise of 2.43, that is, the old price multiplied by 2.43.  There will also be a package for people with limited income, or for those who do not consume much Internet.  The current package, at a price of 26 thousand pounds and a size of 40 megabytes, will become 80 megabytes, but at a price of 60 thousand instead of 52 thousand, that is, an increase of only 8 thousand pounds.  There will also be a package of 100MB.

Minister Salam

The Minister of Economy and Trade, Amin Salam, indicated that he had issued a decision yesterday in which the use of wheat was restricted to the production of Arabic bread only.  He said: "I stressed before the Council of Ministers that the issue will be re-evaluated and it is possible that we will increase the value of the credit according to the need to import wheat, especially after making a decision to limit the use of wheat for Arabic bread. The use of flour will decrease. We will not be able to continue if we continue to use wheat for other products."

Minister of Energy

Minister of Energy Walid Fayyad pointed out that the Council of Ministers approved authorizing the Ministry of Energy to finally sign the treaty with Egypt, Jordan and Syria, first to supply gas from Egypt to Lebanon through Syria, and second to transport and exchange gas in Syria.  Today, we sent the final contracts to the concerned parties in Syria to be reviewed and verified, and next week, coordination will take place with  Egypt and the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum to complete this stage, so that the ball will once again be with the World Bank in terms of financing, and with the American administration in terms of the absence of negative repercussions from these two contracts regarding Caesar's Law.

He added: “The price we have reached for gas is less than half the world price.  We thank the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Egypt for standing by Lebanon. I also learned from the international community that the Egyptian state agreed to give Lebanon the maximum amount that we need (650 million cubic meters) to operate the Deir Ammar plant, in addition to the amount that Syria receives as a fee for transporting gas, but we have to make sure of this.

He revealed that they were informed by the US ambassador that “ the US administration prefers not to change the conditions set by the World Bank, and the necessity of adhering to those previously agreed upon, and not placing any obstacle to the complete of the agreements on the issue of financing."

He pointed out that the Council of Ministers discussed the water projects including Buqaata Dam, whose financing was secured by the Kuwait Fund, and that there had been savings in this funding, we took the government's approval to use the remaining part of the funding to complete the construction of the water refining plant associated with this dam so that we can benefit from it as drinking water, irrigation water, and some networks that connect water drainage.  Some points have also been amended regarding the pollution of the Litani river and Qaraoun, in order to ensure the operation of the Zahle water treatment plant."

As for his opinion regarding the new parliament, he indicated that he saw diversity in it, and "This is a very good thing, because Lebanon is a country of diversity, and I call on the members of the new parliament to focus on matters that can be addressed without any political dispute and focus on life matters. There is a lot of work to do, on the issue of renewable energy, especially since we have put forward a bill related to this issue, and it will be in the interest of all the Lebanese, without any discrimination. I believe that ranks must be unified to achieve the national interest at this critical stage.”-- Presidency Press Office

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