Sponsoring the Regie’s developmental contributions
Khalil: confidence in the government is related to wisely choosing managers of public sector and responsible performance
Seklaoui: over five years, the Regie contributed to 133 projects in 106 villages in 3 governorates
Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil stressed that confidence in the government is related to wisely "choosing managers of public sector” that should be run with "transparency, clarity and responsibility away from personal interests" and with the availability of "adequate supervision". Growth has no chances “under administrative mess and corruption”, he said.
Khalil sponsored the ceremony that was held at the Regie’s headquarter, during which the General Manager, Mr. Nassif Seklaoui handed over contributions to 24 municipalities from the north, south and Bekaa, for the fifth consecutive year. Thus, the number of the Regie’s contributions raises to 133 projects in 106 villages in three governorates at a total cost of 4.5 billion LBP."
Khalil
"When Regie launched months ago the Sustainable Development Project, it seemed out of the context at the time, due to political chaos, anxiety about the future and lack of clarity" Khalil said. "That day, the Regie confirmed that it will pursue its pioneer experience of executing visionary projects emanating from a deep faith in the future of this country. Due to its relations with farmers as a public administration, it was possible to determine the needs of each village.
"Today, we witness the success of this experience that focuses on the importance of development since 2013, achieving its goals by focusing on projects that serve people in their villages and help strengthen their relation with the government". "In front of about 133 projects and 536 scholarships that targeted several households in different Lebanese areas during the last few years, nonetheless the limited budget and in front of their positive outcome, we cannot but to ask about how public money is being spent”. “We found ourselves, as officials, responsible of reaffirming that confidence in public sector is related to wisely choosing managers of public sector, follow-up, accountability, and inspection, among other ".
He added: "Today we reassure our confidence in this establishment, the ability of the government and its public sector to carry out projects whenever the performance is transparent, clear and responsible away from personal interests and under proper supervision. Thus public sector would provide ideal service and true achievements".
Khalil stressed: "Currently, we face a range of political crises; however it should not distract us from focusing on public sector’s function, its role in serving people, and following up the performance in order to achieve the future objectives". "We cannot pursue our job under administrative chaos, while corruption prevails. In fact, we will never grow neither achieve future objectives without making any change, starting with plans, strategies and visions, and road map”.
He stressed “the commitment to pursue the SDP with municipalities; an enormous project that we have the ability to achieve”. “We will study with the Regie the possibility of increasing contributions to include more municipalities and projects that have not been addressed so far”.
He noted "the diversity of these projects and how related they are to farmers’ needs." He added: "We will remain committed to supporting and assisting farmers in all areas, especially tobacco farmers, who spend much of their days hardly working and suffering exceptional fatigue in order to achieve one particular goal; which is to stand in their land and to reach a strategic gain that serves the government. Hence, real development can be implemented for the benefit of these regions and not at their expense."
He concluded: "We encourage municipalities to back farmers and we ask them to make their best efforts in order to preserve their dignity through high quality production and follow up, the way they had preserved our dignity when sacrificed for Lebanon."
Seklaoui
In his speech, Seklaoui announced that so far the Regie had contributed to 133 developmental projects over five years in 106 villages in three governorates (north, south, and Bekaa) at a total cost of 4.5 billion LBP."
He stressed how "hard it is to implement such number of serious projects within such modest budget and short period, without putting transparency away." Considering that development "is not an option, rather an ethical obligation and an institutional duty," he said: "these contributions indicate a good sense of responsibility towards our farmers through local authorities; municipalities, aiming to provide such services."
"The initiative started in 2013, when the Regie contributed to financing the first developmental project in Srifa and perceived the farmers’ need to support," he said. "We focused on legitimizing this work and placing it within a well-considered sustainable development strategy ... in 2016 we launched the plan from President Nabih Berri's residence."
"Our plan is long termed, and our vision is to become one of the world's most sustainable tobacco companies, and the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."
In addition to the municipal support program, the Regie has "achieved many programs according to the priorities of the sustainability strategy."
He explained that the Regie has amended anti-smuggling laws and currently it "organizes an anti-smuggling conference, to find solutions and mechanisms that can be adopted to support this sector at national level."
About fighting child labor, he said: "together with civil society organizations, we launched the Child Protection Program" in addition to “supporting the children of tobacco farmers and providing 450 school assistances and scholarships for outstanding students over the past three years." He underlined "the raise of school allowances offered to the employees”, while “the Minister was fully responsive” toward the step. As well he referred to "introducing an unprecedented health program in all the public sector.”
Seklaoui said that while aiming to improve the quality of its products, the Regie had launched a quality management system and good workplace practices. In fact, "the evaluation of the experts was impressive and the Regie was granted the ISO certification as the first public facility to be awarded the new version of ISO9001: 2015”. He added: "Today, with the support of the Minister of Finance, we have stepped into the international industry map, transforming into a regional hub in the Middle East. We currently produce foreign products in our plant, and we are few steps away from signing new agreements with international companies."
Referring to enhancing the staff’s skills, he mentioned that "training employees comes in relation to their abilities and tasks according to a training program that includes 871 workers annually in cooperation with the Institut des Finances Bassel Fouleihan”.
In the area of reducing energy consumption and pollution, he pointed to "reducing the consumption of energy in the plant thanks to solar energy systems, industrial waste management with no more than 2% non-conforming products, reducing pollution emitted by the plants, and reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide by 30%”.
He stressed that "the municipal support program is the result of the confidence that the Regie, and public sector, have gained, which enabled the facility to meet the expectations of local community and to support the vision of modernizing the sector thanks to Minister Ali Hassan Khalil”.
"Our dreams are great but our challenges are greater, and since whatever goal requires determination, we shall take the hat off to the fatigue of farmers, take care of those crops watered by sweat, and guarantee a sustainable income for 25 thousand households”. “We will not conspire to kill the trust in public facilities, neither to eliminate the national role that public sector plays on social and economic level.”
He promised that “the municipal support project will continue until covering the 450 villages that grow tobacco, thereby contributing to the real development of Lebanese society.”