List of all articles filed under “lebanon-top-stories” category.
When the Phoenicia Intercontinental Hotel celebrated its 50th anniversary in December 2011, Area General Manager Georg Weinlaender expressed his wish that the iconic luxury resort in the heart of Beirut would have many more decades to come.
While enjoying the delights of cosmopolitan Beirut, one of the best places to stay in order to experience the city is the Phoenicia InterContinental Hotel.
The motto of de Bustros and Château Kefraya is “Semper Ultra,” which means “Always the Best.” To everyone at Château Kefraya, it means that no matter how well they do, they are always striving to do better. But for de Bustros this obligation is not due to the grape, but to art. “In Kefraya,” he says, “we are not making wines, we are making Kefraya. The taste is a melody.”
In the ancient world, Lebanese wine was celebrated The Romans so celebrated the wines of the Bekaa Valley that they dedicated one of the largest temples to wine in the world—the famous Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek.
Lebanon has more archeological sites to see than any country in the world. You can go north to see the Crusader-era Citadel of Raymond de Saint-Gilles that looms over the city of Tripoli, and go on to visit Byblos, the oldest (7000 years) continuously inhabited site in the world, or Tyre and Sidon, from where the Phoenicians loaded their ships to trade across the Mediterranean.
In 2008, the first year of the Doha Agreement that signaled the end of internal violence, the economy grew by 8.5%, 9% in the following year, and is on course to grow 7% in 2010.
Today, Lebanon is still dominated by its banking sector, which comprises 35 percent of the economy. Lebanese banking is a home-grown industry, by which is meant that it is largely dominated by old families with a deep treasure chest of banking experience that guides them through both good times and bad.
Nevertheless, numerous challenges remain to be met. Chief among these are: reducing the national debt; privatizing services and industries (such as telecom ); repairing infrastructure damaged by neglect and war (presently electricity and some other services are cut for a few hours each day); increasing broadband coverage; and a host of other problems long neglected as a result of stalemated government.
The most serious foreign policy challenge facing both the government and the economy is another war with Israel. All political parties, including Hezbollah, are committed to developing the nation’s military forces. But all also agree that until a national army is ready, Hezbollah’s armed groups may again be relied upon in the event of an Israeli attack.
Mohamed Chatah, Advisor to the Prime Minister Saad Hariri, best summarizes how Lebanon plans to navigate toward the future: “Politics in the Middle East is turbulent and Lebanon is often pulled in all sorts of directions. Because Lebanon is very diverse, this results in a noisy and often difficult democracy that we have to navigate through without abandoning our principles.”
