BEIRUT: Lebanon is suffering from a high unemployment rate that it does not have the necessary means to fight, the secretary general of the higher council for privatization Ziad Hayek said on Thursday.

“We won’t be able to offer job opportunities to our citizens without investing in huge infrastructure projects,” he said. “These investments should involve huge projects and not just small ones for us to be able to provide better opportunities to Lebanese youths and to millions of Arabs.”

Hayek said that the West was able to face the negative repercussions of the global financial crisis by investing in infrastructure projects which had enabled these countries to properly deal with unemployment during the past two years.

Hayek said that by investing in such projects, Lebanon will be able to provide foreign businesses with their basic needs which will encourage them to establish in the country.

He added that the West has also resorted to establishing a partnership between the private and public sectors and this should happen in Lebanon.

“Due to the high public debt that exists in Lebanon, we won’t be able to invest in infrastructure unless we give the private sector a great role in this process,” he said. “However, the problem lies in the fact that we do not have yet a legal framework for this partnership in Lebanon.”

His remarks came during the annual forum for the gathering of Arab businessmen organized by the Lebanese economic forum and the federation of Arab businessmen.

The forum, which was held at Grand Habtoor Hotel in Sin al-Fil, discussed the major steps that must be taken by Arab countries to overcome any future negative repercussions of the global financial crisis.

Hayek urged Lebanese decision makers to formulate a legal framework for the partnership with the private sector which will give investors more confidence in dealing with the public sector.

According to Hayek, the major problem in Lebanon and Arab countries is that this partnership entails giving the private sector the right make some important decisions and this is what most of the decision makers in our Arab countries would not accept. “They do not want to give up on their power,” he said.

Information Minister Tarek Mitri, who was representing Prime Minister Saad Hariri, emphasized the importance of dialogue and cooperation between the different countries of the region “which will be in the interest of all Arabs.” He said Lebanon cannot afford to lose its role as a platform for connecting all Arabs.

“If Lebanon loses this role then it will also lose the reason for its existence.”

Mitri urged Arabs to deal with economic and educational issues the way they deal with political problems. “Politicians must not waste their time fighting over power while forgetting about the major economic issues facing their countries,” he said. “They must constantly cooperate because this would certainly be in the interest of everybody.”

Mitri emphasized the need to remove all obstacles facing the achievement of progress in cooperation between Arab countries. “This forum has always focused on drawing a general picture reflecting the way that cooperation between Arab countries should be,” he said. However, he added that these rules of cooperation are not as important as removing obstacles hindering Arab common projects.

He also praised Hariri’s role in placing the citizens’ interests above all other issues. Moreover, he asked participants in the forum to remind Lebanese people of the dangers facing Lebanon and threatening to abolish its qualities.

Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud emphasized the necessity of activating cooperation in the tourism sector between Arab countries which would generate benefits for all Arab societies.

He criticized the lack of practical agreements in the tourism sector and said that all of the previously signed ones are just protocols and there is a great need to translate them into real actions. He also stressed the need to enhance the skills of laborers working in this field as well as the need to establish a common Arab tourism market in order to promote Arab industries.

Abboud also criticized the council of Arab tourism ministers meetings which have never generated any practical measures. “This council does not add any value to the tourism sector in the Arab world,” he said. A lot of money is needed to promote tourism between Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, Abboud added. “We should have the will and intention to achieve all this and this council must really assume its responsibilities,” he said.

Meanwhile, president of the Kuwait National Bank Group Ibrahim Dabdoub urged Arab countries to focus on basic reforms in the aim of strengthening development and growth in the region.

“It is of an utmost importance to promote investment in infrastructure projects in the Arab world in addition to enhancing the skills of Arab labors with the preservation of a strong financial position,” he said. “This will help in attracting more foreign and local investments to our countries.”

Dabdoub said that Arab countries might not necessarily be spared from the negative impact of the global crisis because of the lack of proper management of the different aspects of Arab economies. “We are in a great need to activate the role of the private sector because the dominance of the public sector for long years led to a drop in the productivity in Arab countries,” he said. “That’s why we should work on implementing reforms in addition to enhancing the effectiveness of our institutions.”

Dabdoub’s concerns were echoed by the president of the federation of Arab businessmen, Alayn Hamdi al-Tabaa, who urged the establishment of a free trade zone between Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey and the cancellation of visas between these countries. “The trade volume between these countries reached $1.2 billion in 2009.”