The Minister of Economy and Trade in the caretaker government, Amin Salam, held a meeting in the Bahraini capital, Manama, with the Bahraini Minister of Housing and Urban Planning, Ms. Amina bint Ahmed Al-Rumaihi. The meeting focused on exchanging experiences and knowledge to contribute to advancing the national economy. Al-Rumaihi expressed her affection for "Lebanon and its people and her appreciation for the bridges of cooperation between the two countries." She thanked Minister Salam for the meeting to learn from her about "how to leverage the expertise of the Bahraini Ministry of Housing, especially regarding its success in collaborating with the national and foreign private sectors, particularly the Chinese, and how to transfer this experience to Lebanon as a means to reactivate the economic sector through the most important factor, which is urban development and reconstruction in light of the absence of the banking sector that primarily supports low and middle-income individuals in their quest to purchase housing."
In turn, Salam explained to Al-Rumaihi "the ongoing attempts to diversify funding sources in order to ensure the continuity of providing housing loans to the Lebanese," praising "the support received over the past two years from the Arab Fund for Economic Development, based in Kuwait, to the Housing Bank to finance housing purchases for low and middle-income individuals, with a focus on the youth generation aspiring to form families, which has led to a revival in the real estate sector."
Salam added: "In the long term, there is ample work in Lebanon, especially in the coming phase when things calm down in Lebanon and Syria, which, in my opinion, due to the significant destruction inflicted on villages, cities, and the deteriorating infrastructure, will witness the largest urban development and reconstruction project in the world. Therefore, we must prepare to benefit and reactivate our economy by laying the groundwork for reconstruction by attracting companies that specialize in construction, internal and external engineering, furniture manufacturing, and more, to make Lebanon a hub for launching reconstruction efforts."
