Kanaan: We Must Legally Accompany the Strategic Requirement
The subcommittee convened to discuss the proposal for the establishment of the sovereign fund held a session chaired by Deputy Ibrahim Kanaan, with the attendance of some MPs. Kanaan indicated after the session that "all viewpoints presented in the four proposals submitted by the Strong Lebanon bloc, the Development and Liberation bloc, the Strong Republic bloc, and the Democratic Gathering were discussed, as well as the opinion of the Petroleum Authority. It was agreed to unify approaches under the framework of enhancing the revenues of the sovereign fund while diversifying its investment and developmental portfolios and safeguarding the independence of its management."
He added, "We will currently finalize the discussion and approval of the articles related to revenues, withdrawal rules, as well as investment and accountability and transparency rules, after which we will conclude with governance following our discussion on the 20th of this month with a Norwegian expert on the establishment of sovereign funds."
Kanaan concluded: "Lebanon is on the verge of beginning exploration works for oil and gas in Lebanese waters, and this is an important and strategic requirement that we must accompany through the establishment of the sovereign fund based on scientific and global foundations to preserve the financial revenues generated from natural resources and renew them through highly professional and completely independent investment. Additionally, we were informed by the representative of the Petroleum Authority today that the environmental survey on block 9 has concluded, and Total has launched four services for Lebanese companies since the end of February, which include maritime vessel services, helicopter services, logistics base services at the Port of Beirut, and Marine Gas Oil."
