Salam meets Saudi counterpart, discusses opportunities to revive relationships between the two countries

Lebanon's Caretaker Minister of Economy and Trade, Amin Salam, met during his visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with his counterpart, the Saudi Minister of Economy and Planning, Faisal bin Fadel Al-Ibrahim to discuss strengthening mutual economic, trade, and investment relations between the two countries in the next stage.

In the meeting, Salam stressed the privacy of the economic relations between the Kingdom and Lebanon, which date back more than seven decades and include the commercial, industrial, banking, and tourism sectors, pointing out that Saudi investments have always played a significant role in the Lebanese economy, forming during the last two decades before the recent crisis, nearly 20 percent of total foreign investments.

Salam added that "we have an excellent opportunity to revive this Lebanese-Saudi relationship, which has always been characterized by depth and strength, based on positive regional developments and their repercussions on institutional and economic relations in particular, which facilitates matters on both sides."

Heading the Lebanese delegation to meetings of senior officials of the Economic and Social Council for the Arab League Summit, he addressed two main topics:

The first is ways to restore and develop commercial activities between the Kingdom and Lebanon to affirm the long-standing relations that bind the two countries.

The second is how to find the attractive factors and positive components that help the return of Saudi investments to Lebanon.

While the Minister of Economy stressed the need for Lebanon to expedite the implementation of economic reforms and follow a new economic policy based on stability and successful joint projects, which enhances investor confidence and encourages them to take the initiative, he considered that the main door to attracting investors and tourists, revitalizing the Lebanese economy and achieving a promising summer season, is through political and security stability.

Salam also presented figures on the volume of trade exchange between the Kingdom and Lebanon, which exceeded 800 million dollars in the past decade, of which 434 million dollars are Lebanese imports to Saudi Arabia and 359 million dollars are Lebanese exports to the Saudi market. 

Salam stressed that these numbers could double as soon as the markets are reopened, and the economic and trade relations return to their previous state, provided that the situation in Lebanon is stable as in Syria because of its impact on trade exchange between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

The meeting, characterized by positivity, concluded with the agreement of the two parties to start gradually opening channels of cooperation and searching for joint promising and value-added opportunities in the field of economic and trade exchange and encouraging the investment environment between the two countries.