Michel Pharaon

We are indeed in a difficult region and the regional situation is worrying not only for Lebanon.  Lebanon unfortunately sometimes becomes a land of struggle; on the same token Lebanon can be a land of dialogue because you have a lot of contradictions in Lebanon: you have so many religions, and it has a history of being a land of refuge, minorities, and understanding between all the factions there. Oil money sometimes finances the struggles. Unfortunately, since a number of years ago, Lebanon has become a place where some struggles take place by proxy.  It is a worry and a process to transcend the internal dialogue to prevent external forces from destroying Lebanon or creating an internal struggle in Lebanon.  The Pope said that Lebanon is a message; we believe that and we are trying to promote and protect Lebanon. We believe Lebanon can become a land of institutionalized dialogue.  Lebanon is one of the only countries in the region that has a free press and a free economy, and the puzzle of Lebanon such as all of minorities there has created immunity against dictatorship because nobody can really dictate on other factions. Today we are thinking that the best way to preserve Lebanon is by recognizing all of the factions and minorities, and and ensuring this small land is preserved as a place of peace and harmony.

Have you seen a lot of progress in terms of the internal political situation over the past few years?

The real milestone was the assassination of President Hariri and the 14th of March which was really a kind of revolution of the Lebanese people. The Syrian evacuation from Lebanon was also important. Since then there has been a dialog and we have a program that we have to try to implement.  There is the international tribunal for the assassination of President Hariri and a lot of other political leaders who were assassinated. There is a consensus to try and treat the Palestinian arms inside and outside of the camps. There is also the process of dialogue for the strategy of defense which includes the future of the arms of Hezbollah, which is not controlled by the government.  Today the unity cabinet where all the major forces are present has a political program to preserve the political and security stability in Lebanon while still permitting the private sector to really prosper. 

How would you assess the current economic climate or business climate in Lebanon?

The main station was the Paris Free Conference, where global policy was made. It was an economic and financial policy ; it was presented at the conference, including privatization . I think we have good laws because we’ve always had a free economy unlike other countries like Syria or Egypt which were obliged to reform their law because their law was Marxist. We already have the laws we need for the private sector . The business sector is doing not so bad.  Of course the ambition that Lebanon would be the financial center for the Middle East is not an ambition we can really have anymore. In the Gulf they have progress that we perhaps could not achieve due to the war.  We have a lot of points we’re very well advanced in. One is the financial sector . Almost 20% of the economy, which is the transfer of Lebanese  is a very important sector. Every important Lebanese industry has a presence in the region. We are trying to create stronger bonds with our neighboring countries to try and create an open zone. Maybe the industrial sector is suffering because you do not have the same kind of cheap labor in Lebanon that you have in Egypt or elsewhere.  If you open the zone however, Lebanon has a very important role to play within the region.

What remains the greatest challenge for Lebanon; is it to keep the political stability ?

The main problem now in the region is somewhat linked to the sanctions in Iran, there’s the Iraqi problem and mainly there is the Israeli «escaping from peace. »  So there are some tensions and when you link all of them you have a serious worry about stability.  It is no longer about trying to find a solution for the Israeli Palestinian problem; it is to create a process where you have to have a solution.  The international community must apply itself. We’re worried about what is happening around us and which could impact the political stability in Lebanon but we’re not worried that internal factors would destabilize Lebanon.  I think everyone including Hezbollah is really conscious to preserve stability and not to create problems for small internal issues.  Of course there’s always pressure on Lebanon, sometimes from Syria and sometimes from elsewhere.

Can you tell us a little bit about your company ?

The history of the group follows the history of the region, we were heavily present in Palestine also. We were managing the port of Haifa until the presence of Israel.  We had a huge presence in Egypt until the nationalization of Egypt and Syria.  Lately because of the war we have also exported the know-how on some of the business in the Middle East and Africa.  We have three areas that we always say are our focus : a business we know, a country we know, and a business leader that has worked with us and preferably we know.  To invest into new ventures we would like to have these things, or some combination of two of them at least.  We are present in 15 or 16 countries ; it is a very decentralized business, mainly in pharmaceutical, medical and life insurance, as well as management. Unfortunately, lately because of the political situation in Lebanon we never mixed politics and business there, so this made for a lack of opportunity to go into some businesses that we might have gone into in other countries. I wasn’t able sometimes to catch some ventures, but we have some collaborators in the family and in our group and we’re looking to the pan-Arab concept. And the Arab countries opening up. We have to be present throughout the region. There is a sort of race in the Arab countries and in Africa to be present and to create a group which is present in all these countries.

What is your vision for the group as the chairman?  What are your focus areas for the group?

Our main sector and which we have to move on quickly in order to be the present and face the global competition is the insurance sector.  We have a vision, we have a strategy and we’re trying to implement it, although the sector needs more capital than other sectors that are commercial activities.

What is your final message about Lebanon for you to our audience?

There is Lebanon and there are the Lebanese.  Maybe the Lebanese are sometimes experts in some areas but they have trading and human relations in their blood. Lebanese have a facility to succeed wherever they go and this is a characteristic.  At one point in time this immigration of our potential was a threat to the Lebanese industry to have all these experts leaving. We are now trying to find ways to link them to Lebanon, and in the next 10 to 15 years to come this will be a big challenge: how to gather the potential of all of the Lebanese around the world to work on the strengthening of Lebanon. 

“The other thing is that Lebanon is a phoenix;

it has some immunity. I don’t think that any country

has faced so many problems and at the same time

has solved so many problems as Lebanon.  This

is due to the dynamism of the Lebanese.”